Facebook is looking into removing anti-vaccine information from actual recommendations of other things to read on the social network, Bloomberg News is reporting.
The recommendations are generated from the social network’s software systems.
Bloomberg said information discouraging people from getting vaccines for their children has gone viral on Facebook. It said that information may be partly responsible for an increase in the number of measles outbreaks this year.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. has asked Facebook to address the problem.
“There is strong evidence to suggest that at least part of the source of this trend is the degree to which medically inaccurate information about vaccines surface on the websites where many Americans get their information,” Schiff wrote in a letter to Facebook. “The algorithms which power these services are not designed to distinguish quality information from misinformation or misleading information, and the consequences of that are particularly troubling for public health issues.”
Meanwhile, The Guardian newspaper said it found that Facebook search results for groups and pages with vaccine information were dominated by anti-vaccine details.
Facebook said it is “exploring additional measures to best combat the problem, including “reducing or removing this type of content from recommendations.”
Schiff’s letter was also sent to Google, which has already taken some measures to limit anti-vaccine information, Bloomberg noted.
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