Facebook debuts educational pop-up windows on vaccines to stop the spread of anti-vaxxer garbage

[ElectricBlanketFire]

How about that? Facebook doing something useful for a change.

A new feature is rolling out on Facebook and Instagram to combat the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, announced on Wednesday that educational pop-up windows will appear on the social media platforms when a user searches for vaccine-related content, visits vaccine-related Facebook groups and pages, or taps a vaccine-related hashtag on Instagram.

If the user is based in the United States, the pop-up window will connect the user to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for credible information on vaccines. If the user is outside of the United States, it will connect them to the World Health Organization.

Click to shrink...

 

[SecondNature]

"See Posts Anyway"

 

[Rune Walsh]

If anything, it will piss off anti-vaxxers and that's a good start.

 

[Rand a. Thor]

This is a half assed measure. Either ban content or have the pop up display the site instead of giving them the option to skip.

 

[adj_noun]

WHO?!? GLOBALIST SCUM TRYING TO POISON MY KIDS! Vaccines really ARE dangerous! :O

And so it goes.

 

[Falchion]

This is good. Hopefully it prevents even a few people from falling for that trap.

 

[SugarNoodles]

The fact that Facebook thinks this will actually make up for the fact that they've allowed spreading anti-vax propaganda for so long demonstrates just how out of touch they are.

It's like claiming the CNN is going to counteract Fox News.

 

[Pomerlaw]

"FACEBOOK IS PART OF THE CONSPIRACY!!"

 

[Deleted member 11822]

Or better yet, don't allow that nonsense to be posted on the platform you control.
Yet another half-assed measure, by Facebook.

 

[Squarehard]

Band-Aid on what is already a clusterfuck of stupidity.

 

[Loudninja]

This is good. Hopefully it prevents even a few people from falling for that trap.

Click to shrink...

But its counterproductive since they still allow anti vax bs right?

 

[Falchion]

But its counterproductive since they still allow anti vax bs right?

Click to shrink...

Yeah I mean it's absolutely a half step but if they aren't going to do the right thing and ban it, this is something.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

I support it to help stop ignorance.

I have a concern about it eventually being misused by states to force facebook to provide disinformation. Not that facebook needs any help with that...

 

[Cantaim]

Ban the content Facebook. You know it's bullshit stop profiting off it via the engaged users and do the right thing.

Spoiler

they wont

 

[Rover]

So don't stop people posting and sharing it with friends?

 

[Smitington]

I support it. Way better than nothing.

 

[The Albatross]

This is a good change.

I think that they should remove the preamble "When it comes to health everyone wants to be..." blah blah, and just stick straight up "Learn why The World Health Organizations Recommends Vaccinations to Prevent Many Diseases"

 

[spam musubi]

These people aren't against vaccines because of a lack of awareness. They are aware of the facts and actively reject the facts.

 

[Feep]

Fine with me. At PAX this weekend, I literally saw anti-vax protestors yelling at people from the sidewalk. This shit has gone way too far.

 

[Kernel]

Whenever someone posts a dumb story about Trump can they display a popup with the US Constitution to the 25th Amendment?

 

[Walter White Walker]

Remove the "See Post Anyway" option.

 

[Deleted member 9035]

Way too little, way too late.
These sort of hand-made after the fact solutions will never be more than a band-aid.

 

[Parch]

It's easy to say just ban it, but that adds a new level level of opposition. Ban something and then they have to deal with all the "freedom of speech" bullshit and censorship complaining.

 

[sgtnosboss]

a bit late...

 

[Alcoremortis]

I'm pretty sure the end result of this will just be the addition of "the globalists got to my facebook account" as part of their conspiracy theory.

 

[Zoe]

It's easy to say just ban it, but that adds a new level level of opposition. Ban something and then they have to deal with all the "freedom of speech" bullshit and censorship complaining.

Click to shrink...

And you know the system would be full of false positives from people complaining about anti-vaxxers.

 

[LakeEarth]

This is the exact opposite of "maximum effort".

 

[Spaltazar]

This is the exact opposite of "maximum effort".

Click to shrink...

maximum lowest effort