United States – The social media giant will now be enforcing a global policy prohibiting ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated, it said Wednesday on a blog post.
On the post, Head of Health Kang-Xing Jin and Director of Product Rob Leathern straightforwardly said, “We don’t want these ads on our platform.”
The new policy is another step forward to Facebook’s goal to fight misinformation amid the pandemic, having previously put restrictions on vaccine hoaxes identified by World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Now, if an ad explicitly discourages someone from getting a vaccine, we’ll reject it,” it said.
Facebook will, however, still allow ads that advocate for or against legislation or government policies around vaccines, but will be requiring them to get authorized and have the ‘Paid for by’ label included in order for people to see the brand or company behind them.
“We regularly refine our approach around ads that are about social issues to capture debates and discussions around sensitive topics happening on Facebook. Vaccines are no different,” said Facebook.
Aside from the policy, Facebook announced that it will be launching a new information campaign to encourage people to get their flu shot. It will be initially launched in the US in the current week and will be gradually rolled out in other countries.