JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The social media giant Facebook says it’s launching the largest worldwide campaign to “support the effective delivery” of COVID-19 vaccinations.
In a news release Monday, Facebook said the campaign helps people find where they can get vaccinated and focuses on removing misinformation. Facebook says as public officials roll out new information about the vaccine’s availability, it will feature links in its COVID-19 Information Center -- similar to how it features registering to vote during an election year.
Facebook says it’s reached more than 2 billion people from 189 countries and connected them to reliable information about the coronavirus through the COVID-19 Information Center.
According to the news release, Facebook is focused on removing vaccine posts that are widely debunked hoaxes and false claims about the coronavirus. It said it’s also focused on removing more Facebook Pages and Groups, as well as Instagram accounts that repeatedly share conspiracy theories and false claims.
Chad Neilsen, from UF Health, says that misinformation on sites like Facebook has contributed to people not wanting to get the COVID vaccines. He says many people are quick to believe posts online that seem real with only the tiniest bit of evidence.
“That the vaccine causes infertility was a popular one, which it does not. That was a Facebook post,” he said. “These anti-vaccine movements prey on people’s ability to believe something with a little bit of evidence, but it’s taken out of context.”
A policy manager for Facebook released a statement saying: “What we are trying to do is leverage the power of Facebook’s reach to be able to reach the kind of people who would want to share a little bit of information that public health decisions makers can use and do that at a scale that helps effect the way the pandemic is combated at over time.”
According to statistics from Facebook Data for Good, 68% of Duval County residents, 73.6% of St. Johns County residents and 59.2% of Clay County residents would choose to receive a COVID vaccine if it were offered to them today.
Additionally, Facebook announced $120 million in advertising credits to health ministries and agencies around the world. It also plans to provide training and marketing support to help health organizations reach the right people with the most up-to-date vaccine information. It says each state is eligible to use these ad credits and that Florida has already utilized ad credits to share information with their residents.