Facebook Bans Major US Anti-Vaccination Group for Spreading Misinformation

Facebook-owner Meta mentioned Thursday it had kicked probably the most influential US anti-vaccination teams off the social media community for spreading Covid-19 misinformation. The Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which has been a critic of Covid vaccines, instantly accused Meta of stifling its free speech rights. “Facebook is acting here as a surrogate for the federal government’s crusade to silence all criticism of draconian government policies,” CHD founder Robert Kennedy Jr., nephew of late president John F. Kennedy, mentioned in a press launch.

Meta spokesperson Aaron Simpson informed AFP that the group’s accounts at Facebook and Instagram had been shuttered on Wednesday. The ban got here after repeated violations of Meta’s misinformation guidelines.

CHD mentioned its social media accounts had been adopted by a whole lot of hundreds of individuals, and claimed the motion by Meta got here as a shock.

In a launch, the group shared a display screen seize exhibiting messages stating the accounts had been suspended for violating Meta insurance policies relating to “misinformation that could lead to real world harm.”

CHD contended that the ban could possibly be associated to a lawsuit it filed towards Meta accusing the tech big of infringing free speech rights by counting on US Centers for Disease Control relating to what Covid-19 data is scientifically backed.

The anti-vaccine group has appealed a decrease courtroom ruling towards it within the litigation, in response to authorized filings.

In different information, US teenagers have left Facebook in droves over the previous seven years, preferring to spend time at video-sharing venues YouTube and TikTok, in response to a Pew Research Center survey information out Wednesday. TikTok has “emerged as a top social media platform for US teens” whereas Google-run

YouTube “stands out as the most common platform used by teens,” the report’s authors wrote.Pew’s information comes as Facebook-owner Meta is in a battle with TikTok for social media primacy, making an attempt to maintain the utmost variety of customers as a part of its multi-billion-dollar ad-driven enterprise.

The report mentioned some 95 % of the kids surveyed mentioned they use YouTube, in contrast with 67 % saying they’re TikTok customers.Just 32 % of teenagers surveyed mentioned they go online to Facebook — a giant drop from the 71 % who reported being customers throughout an identical survey some seven years in the past