Author: Susan Samples / Source: WOODTV
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Surfing social media from the living room of her Jenison home, Rachel Atwood said she feels Big Brother’s watchful eyes.
“They’re watching your Messenger, they’re watching your pages,” said Atwood, referring to Facebook. “Who’s the one deciding what stays in the content and what leaves?
”Atwood reached out to Target 8 after she and others in the anti-vaccine community noticed what they thought was increased monitoring and manipulation of their posts.
“What’s the threat?” questioned Atwood. “It’s just information. People can make decisions for themselves.”
Facebook said Thursday afternoon that it is not deleting anti-vaccine posts, but it is working to reduce visibility of what it calls vaccine misinformation.
“We are working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic,” a Facebook spokesperson wrote in an email to Target 8.
The social media giant went on to write that leading global health organizations like the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have publicly identified “verifiable vaccine hoaxes,” and that if those myths appear on Facebook, the company will take action against them.
“For example, if a group or Page admin posts this vaccine misinformation, we will exclude the entire group or Page from recommendations, reduce these groups and Pages’ distribution in News Feed and Search, and reject ads with this misinformation,” the spokesperson explained.
Atwood said social media platforms should let…
The post W MI anti-vaxxer protests Facebook policy change appeared first on FeedBox.