Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Twitter, Facebook Try To Tackle Vaccine Misinformation
Twitter said Wednesday it will begin labeling and removing posts with false claims about coronavirus vaccines during the coming weeks as efforts to vaccinate front-line workers across the country are underway.聽The social media platform said it will expand its existing policies regarding coronavirus misinformation to include posts聽that 鈥渁dvance harmful, false or misleading narratives鈥 about the COVID-19 vaccinations. Those posts will be labeled and the platform said it may require users to remove such tweets. (Klar, 12/16)
Facebook is reportedly cracking down harder on COVID-19 misinformation. The social network is notifying users who have liked, commented on, or shared a post that's been removed for violating Facebook's terms of service relating to the coronavirus pandemic. Then, in an effort to course correct, it will connect those folks with what the company deems trustworthy sources. (Mlot, 12/16)
Facebook has overhauled its approach to harmful Covid-19 health misinformation, announcing major changes that would send a much stronger message to users who have interacted with harmful falsehoods about the virus. The decision on Tuesday comes after STAT reported in May on expert criticism of the social network鈥檚 handling of falsehoods about Covid-19 from the researchers whom Facebook said it had consulted to design the policy. (Brodwin, 12/16)
As Mr. Trump鈥檚 challenges to the election鈥檚 results have been knocked down and the Electoral College has affirmed President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.鈥檚 win, voter fraud misinformation has subsided. Instead, peddlers of online falsehoods are ramping up lies about the Covid-19 vaccines, which were administered to Americans for the first time this week. (Alba and Frenkel, 12/16)