As a way of addressing the spread of what it says is anti-vaccine misinformation, Facebook has just rolled out a new feature on both Facebook and Instagram. A pop-out window will appear whenever a user conducts a search related to vaccines and other related information.
Aside from searching, the pop-out window also appears whenever a user visits vaccine-related Facebook groups or pages, or even when a user taps on vaccine-related hashtags on Instagram.
The pop-up windows will direct the user to what Facebook has decided is a credible source of information such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If the user is outside the United States, the pop-out window will connect the user to the website of the World Health Organization instead.
Responding to the anti-vaccine misinformation campaign of Facebook, the CDC couldn’t help but praised the tech company for doing so. According to CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund, it is hard to determine what is accurate and credible online. “We know that parents often turn to social media to access health information and connect with other parents, and it can be difficult to determine what is accurate and who the credible sources of information are,” CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said in an email on Wednesday.
