Washington CNN Business —
Facebook-parent Meta is weighing whether to relax its policies against Covid-19 misinformation, proposing a shift from removing false claims to simply labeling or demoting them.
The social media giant on Tuesday asked its independent Oversight Board for an opinion on whether its tougher pandemic policies are still warranted, citing higher vaccination rates around the world as well as the company’s own efforts to promote authoritative information about Covid-19.
One alternative to removing false claims, the company suggested, may be to label or suppress them in users’ feeds — either by having Meta police the claims directly or by outsourcing that work to its third-party fact-checkers, whose reports can prompt Meta’s algorithms to reduce the visibility of claims rated as fake.
“Meta remains committed to combating COVID-19 misinformation and providing people with reliable information,” wrote Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, in a blog post. But, he added, “as the pandemic has evolved, the time is right for us to seek input from the Oversight Board about our measures to address COVID-19 misinformation, including whether those introduced in the early days of an extraordinary global crisis remains the right approach for the months and years ahead.”
Meta’s current policies explicitly ban a wide array of false claims about Covid-19, such as that the illness can be transmitted by 5G wireless technology or that Covid-19 tests can infect you...
The visual verification might not be accessible to you. We recommend you to use the audio verification instead. Important: after clicking play, you will hear 6 digits. Please wait until the audio f...