Public Health: Facebook under investigation for COVID-19 Vaccine misinformation

*The District of Columbia Attorney-General says the tech giant claims it is taking action to address the proliferation of COVID-19 Vaccine misinformation on its site, but when pressed to show its work, ‘Facebook refused’

*We have consistently provided updates on our blog about our efforts to combat Covid-19 misinformation, Facebook replies

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

For claiming that it minimises vaccine misinformation on its platform, Facebook Incorporated is facing probe by the Attorney-General for the District of Columbia (DC), United States, over whether the global technology giant really has taken adequate measures to curb the spread of misinformation about the Coronavirus (COVID_19 Vaccines on the platform.

ConsumerConnect gathered Attorney-General Karl Racine is seeking internal documents that show how Facebook penalises users who violate its misinformation policies around vaccines, as well as materials related to the company’s study about vaccine hesitancy among users, according to a copy of a subpoena issued by Racine’s office last month.

The subpoena also demanded data on the total volume of content that has been removed or demoted by Facebook for violating its vaccine misinformation policies, reports Axios.

Attorney-General’s Spokeswoman in a statement said: “Facebook has said it’s taking action to address the proliferation of Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on its site.

The statement noted then when pressed to show its work, “Facebook refused.”

Racine stated: “AG Racine’s investigation aims to make sure Facebook is truly taking all steps possible to minimise vaccine misinformation on its site and support public health.”

Accordingly, the tech giant in a statement disclosed that had removed over 18 million pieces of content on Facebook and Instagram that violate its COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation policies.

The leading tech firm also contended that it labelled more than 167 million pieces of COVID-19 content that were rated false by its fact-checking network.

Facebook said: “We remain the only company to partner with more than 80 fact-checking organisations covering over 60 languages, using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to scale those fact-checks against duplicate posts across our platform.

“We have consistently provided updates on our blog about our efforts to combat Covid-19 misinformation.”

The spread of misinformation about COVID-19 Vaccines has become a significant topic of discussion in the US Congress over the last few months, according to report.

American lawmakers have pushed the tech giants to do more to eliminate conspiracy theories about the Coronavirus Vaccines, which have proliferated over the course of the pandemic.

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