Facebook launches offensive to combat misinformation on vaccines

Facebook launched an offensive Thursday to suppress the spread of misinformation about vaccines on the 2.3-billion-member social network.

The company has faced pressure in recent weeks to tackle the problem, amid outbreaks of measles around the United States attributed to growing numbers of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.

US lawmakers have decried the higher incidences of preventable diseases in the wake of a movement against child vaccination, in large part due to rumors they can cause health or developmental issues.

Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president for global policy management, said the social media network would reduce the distribution of false data and provide users with authoritative information about vaccinations.

"We will reduce the ranking of groups and pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in news feed and search," Bickert said in a statement.

Facebook also will remove the misleading content from search recommendations and predictions, reject advertisements found to contain misinformation about vaccines, and disable accounts that continue to violate company policies on vaccine information, she said.

The company no longer allows targeting based on users' interest in "vaccine controversies" and will share educational materials with users that come across such misinformation.

The World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified "verifiable vaccine hoaxes," Bickert said, and, "If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we will take action against them."