Facebook Begins Hiding Anti-Vaccine Misinformation

America now has 206 confirmed cases of measles, its highest year-to-date number in over 25 years. Now USA Today reports on how Facebook is responding:

In mid-February, Facebook told USA TODAY it had 'taken steps' to reduce fake health news and anti-vaxx posts and said it was considering making anti-vaccination content on its site less visible amid a measles outbreak that has reignited a conversation about preventative shots. At the time, Facebook said, 'we know we have more to do....' Revealed Thursday: The social network says it will reduce distribution and provide users with 'authoritative information' on the topic.
Facebook is following the lead of Pinterest, which has blocked all searches using terms related to vaccines or vaccinations as part of a plan to stop the spread of misinformation related to anti-vaxx posts.... It will reduce the ranking of Facebook groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in News Feed and Search. 'These groups and Pages will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when you type into Search,' Facebook said. When it discovers ads with misinformation about vaccinations, 'we will reject them.' Facebook said it has removed related targeting options, like 'vaccine controversies,' in ads.... Additionally, Facebook said it wouldn't show or recommend content that contains misinformation about vaccinations on the Explore section of Facebook-owned Instagram or on its hashtag pages.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.