The company removed posts that spread false claims about cures as well as treatments for COVID-19, as well as other health organizations for misinformation saying dangerous. The company has also taken steps to print credible health information, including debunking common rumors about the virus and expressing PSAs about wearing masks.
Despite these efforts, misinformation about the pandemic has been rampant on both Facebook and Instagram, and the company’s stricter policies have been tested several times.
In May, a viral video falsely claiming that masks make people sick and that the coronavirus was made in a lab, garnered millions of views before Facebook removed it. The scenario repeated itself last month when another video, which falsely claimed that the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine was a ‘cure’ for COVID-19, was viewed more than 20 million times in one day before Facebook took action against it. name. In both cases, copies of the videos remained spread across Facebook and Instagram well after the removal began.
Last week, Facebook removed a post from Donald Trump after he claimed that children are “almost immune” to COVID-19. That video was also several hours on and was viewed millions of times before being deleted.
