Facebook only just now gets around to blocking the #VaccinesKill hashtag

Facebook balances lives against dollars the same way Ford did with the Pinto. Civil liability is the only real way available, right now, to make them understand.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/21/tech/facebook-vaccineskill-hashtag/index.html

Last week, even as it came under fire from the White House over its role in spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, Facebook (FB) hadn't taken the simple step of blocking the #VaccinesKill hashtag on its platform.

Now the hashtag is hidden on the platform, locked behind a message that says Facebook is "keeping our community safe."

The change happened hours after CNN Business asked Facebook why the page full of anti-vaccination falsehoods was easy to find. If this sounds familiar, it's because almost the exact same thing happened with Facebook-owned Instagram two years ago, during one of the company's previous efforts to tell people that, seriously, it really was doing a great job of moderating anti-vaccine content.

It's yet another example of the Whack-a-mole that happens all across social media. Reporters or other users notice content that clearly violates a platform's policies; they ask why it is being permitted; the platform whacks it away; and then the cycle repeats.

The existence of the #VaccinesKill content was noticed by CNN last weekend, after President Joe Biden accused Facebook of "killing people" by letting lies spread on its platforms.
Biden later walked that back and focused his ire on individuals and organizations who use Facebook to spread disinformation.

It remains quite hard to get a handle on the scope of the problem. Many of the so-called "disinformation dozen" that Biden criticized, who were identified in a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate as super-spreaders of anti-vaccine propaganda, have been banned in some way from one or another of Facebook's platforms or have gone quiet. Some of the "dozen" have learned how to post in ways that create less risk Facebook will take action against them.”