Social media websites including Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest have been “cracking down” on vaccine-related content being posted and shared on their platforms. August 29, Pinterest released a statement notifying users that when they search for “measles,” “vaccine safety,” and other health terms related to vaccines, they will be directed to public health organizations, including the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the WHO-established Vaccine Safety Net.
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In the statement, the company explains, “We believe a healthy life is an inspired life, and today we have an update on our efforts to combat health misinformation.” Last year, Pinterest stopped showing results for any and all searches related to vaccines.
The statement continues, “Hesitancy around vaccines is one of this year’s top global health threats, according to the WHO. In addition, the CDC confirmed that the U.S. is experiencing the greatest number of measles cases reported since 1992 and since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000.”
“Since 2017 it’s been against our community guidelines to promote anti-vaccination advice and other health misinformation, and we’ve never allowed it to be advertised. We’ve long used guidance from these health institutions to inform our policy and how we enforce it, but we wanted to do more.”
The statement goes on to talk about health misinformation and the potential it has to impact public health. Is the new policy truly about the threat of misinformation, or is it about censorship? You may know that Dr. Mercola no longer keeps an active Facebook page. While there were several reasons for this decision, censorship played a major role. Facebook promised to combat "fake news" on its platform, but its censorship doesn't end at blatantly fake news articles. Information that is unfavorable to Facebook (or its advertisers) is censored out as well. It seems that other social media platforms, like Pinterest, have jumped on the same bandwagon.
What do you think? Do you agree with Pinterest’s decision to block vaccine-related search results?