On Tuesday, July 26, 2022, Facebook's parent company, Meta, announced that it was considering easing its policies against the COVID-19 misinformation that had been implemented nearly two years prior. According to CNN, Meta proposed that instead of removing false claims, the misleading content will be labeled or demoted.
Meta stated that it has sought advice from its independent Oversight Board on whether its COVID-19 misinformation policies are still guaranteed. It cited the high vaccination rates and the business's initiatives to spread reliable information about the pandemic.
Meta suggested labeling or suppressing false and misleading claims in users' feeds directly or through third-party fact-checkers, whose findings can prompt the platform's algorithms to reduce the false claims' visibility.
Meta Is Seeking the Oversight Board’s Opinion
“Meta remains committed to combating COVID-19 misinformation and providing people with reliable information,” confirmed Nick Clegg, the company's president of global affairs, in a blog post. “The time is right for us to seek input from the Oversight Board about our measures to address the COVID-19 misinformation, including whether those introduced in the early days of an extraordinary global crisis remain the right approach for the months and years ahead,” he added.
“Now that the COVID-19 situation has evolved,” said Nick Clegg, Meta is “seeking the Oversight Board’s opinion on whether we should change its way of addressing this type of misinformation through other means, like labeling or demoting it.”
According to the social media giant, the board was established to “exercise independent judgment, operating as an expert-led check and balance for Meta, with the ability to make binding decisions on specific content cases and to offer non-binding advisory opinions on its policies.”
Meta stated that it seeks the board's advice on whether Meta's current measures to address COVID-19 misinformation under its harmful health misinformation policy are still appropriate, or if the false claims should be addressed through other means.
Nick Clegg added that the Oversight Board's guidance, in this case, will also help respond to future public health emergencies.
Before Meta’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, the company only removed misinformation when its partners and experts noted that a piece of content could contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. “The change meant that, for the first time, the policy would provide for the removal of entire categories of false claims on a worldwide scale,” he wrote.
Meta Removes 80 Claims About COVID-19 and Vaccines
The blog post also stated that since the pandemic started, Meta has deleted more than 25 million content items. According to the blog, Meta addressed false claims about masking, social distancing, and virus transmissibility as part of its COVID-19 misinformation policy. Following the vaccine's release, the company focused on removing additional false claims, such as claims that the vaccine was harmful and ineffective. The platform's policy currently requires the removal of 80 distinct false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines, according to Meta's president of global affairs.
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