Social Media Sites Taking Action Against Anti-Vaccination Groups For Spreading Dangerous Propaganda
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Anti-vaccination groups are being targeted for spreading dangerous propaganda and some social media sites are taking action. The World Health Organization says vaccine hesitancy is a public health threat. Anti-vaccination groups are being blamed for outbreaks of measles, which are growing. Now, the focus is on social media sites where the messages are being spread.
Pinterest is the first to take decisive action and is now blocking searches related to vaccinations. The social media company says it wants to curb the spread of misinformation.
Anti-vaccine propaganda is all over the internet, falsely claiming that vaccines are dangerous.
Doctors are concerned that parents are being misled and don't get their children vaccinated. It's blamed for the recent measles outbreak.
"Medicine is hard enough. There's so much we don't know, but this we do know -- specific germs cause specific diseases and we can prevent some of those diseases, and when parents actually choose not to get it because they're being influenced by bad information on the internet, and that causes their child to suffer, it's just heartbreaking and unconscionable," said Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
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His latest book is "Bad Advice: Why Celebrities, Politicians And Activists Aren't Your Best Source Of Health Information."
"I think we live where we've slipped from scientific literacy into scientific denialism -- people simply declare their own truths," said Offit. "It's not just sort of an information war, it's like a war on information. It's even worse. It's hard to watch."
YouTube and Facebook have acknowledged the problem. A statement from Facebook to CBS3 reads, in part, "We've taken steps to reduce the distribution of health-related misinformation on Facebook, but we know we have more to do."
Experts say Facebook has accepted advertising from anti-vaccination groups and that those groups have targeted young women of childbearing age, especially on Facebook.
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Most states require children to be vaccinated before they can enter school.
