Scientific evidence has shown that vaccines are safe and save millions of lives every year, so it is essential to disseminate truthful and proven information about them.
A couple of months ago Facebook announced that it was joining the anti-vaccine fight by removing content that disseminates false information, so did YouTube and Amazon, and now Instagram is added. The social network announced that will block hashtags that show false information regarding vaccines.
With the help of artificial intelligence, Instagram has announced that it will start working to eliminate hashtags that are in itself a false statement about vaccines, such as #vaccinescauseautism, as well as to hide the more than 14,000 publications grouped in anti-vaccine hashtags. .
In Babies and more The American Academy of Pediatrics asks Facebook, Google and Pinterest to stop the spread of anti-vaccine publicationsFalse hashtags based on dangerous myths such as #vaccinescauseautism (vaccines cause autism), #vaccineskill (vaccines kill) and #vaccinesarepoison (vaccines are poison) are already prohibited and do not return search results on Instagram.
The social network will apply greater control over publications about vaccines with the intention of limiting the spread of false information with detrimental effects on the public.As with searches related to drugs or self-harm, Instagram is considering showing educational pop-up messages to people seeking vaccine-related hoaxes.
It's good news, but there is still a lot wrong information promoted by the anti-vaccines circulating in social networks. The hashtag #Vacunas can encompass all types of content, including fake content. For now, what Instagram does not include in this initial plan is remove accounts or publications that disseminate anti-vaccine information. That is, a priori there will be no changes in the Terms of Use of the social network.
In WATmagInstagram works to hide the more than 14,000 publications grouped in the hashtag #antivacunas
