Instagram cracks down on anti-vaccination misinformation

In an attempt to stop the spread of misinformation, Instagram will block access to hashtags associated with anti-vaccination misinformation.

If a hashtag contains a large amount of posts that display anti-vaccination misinformation, the entire hashtag will be blocked.

Instagram will consider information to be misinformation if organizations such as the World Health Organization have deemed it to be false.

The platform will continue to display posts that include information that has not been disproved by such organizations.

The process will use machine learning to identify which hashtags have a high level of misinformation. A hashtag will be removed if it contains anti-vaccination misinformation.

Instagram will also have a pop-up educational feature that will appear when users search for anti-vaccine information.

The platform is also creating a tool that will allow users to appeal if their post has been removed. A different moderator will then receive the post to review.

The updates to the platform are in the early stages and users may still see anti-vaccination misinformation.

Source: The Verge