Facebook is allowing anti-vaccination ads to run on its platforms despite its ban on vaccine misinformation.
Buzzfeed News has reported that an alternative medicine company called Earthley is running ads on Facebook and Instagram that guide users to a whooping cough treatment that touch on the vaccine controversy.
The ads falsely state that the vaccine for whooping cough is unsafe. They instead claim that Earthley’s products are a better remedy than the vaccine.
Earthley’s ads appear to go against Facebook’s policy that bans ads that include claims which have been debunked by external or internal fact checking teams. The claims in these ads have been debunked by the World Health Organization.
A Facebook spokesperson told Buzzfeed News that the ads displayed “no violation” of its policies.
“Facebook does not have a policy that bans advertising on the basis that it expresses opposition to vaccines,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “Our policy is to ban ads containing vaccine misinformation.”
Instances like these make users question if Facebook’s approach to advertisements are detailed enough to deal with problems such as these.
Source: Buzzfeed News, Engadget
