Facebook Again Efforts To Make Social Media Safe From Anti-Vaccine Groups

Facebook is one of the social media that is often a hotbed of anti-vaccine. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - Facebook, one of the social media that is often a hotbed for anti-vaccines, has again taken action, by cleaning up groups and pages containing these groups.

It started when anti-vaccine groups in the United States (US) tried to stage a disruptive Canadian "Freedom Convoy". And try to fill social media pages with their influence.

Seeing this, Facebook's parent company Meta removed several "truck convoy" groups and pages run by scammers in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Romania and other countries.

Meta says many of those groups have recently changed their names to adopt terms like truck driver, freedom, and convoy in the hope, they can take advantage of the sudden interest of people reading their content.

Many of those pages include links to websites selling pro-Trump and anti-vaccine merchandise. At the same time, most of the accounts taking part in these groups are related to real users not bots.

“Speaking of opposition to the government's mandate is not against Meta's policy. However, we have removed several groups and Pages for repeatedly violating our policies that prohibit QAnon content and which are run by spammers in various countries around the world," said a Meta Spokesperson, as quoted from Engadget, Monday, February 14.

Out of concern, the company will continue to monitor the situation. "We continue to see scammers linking hot-button issues that have caught people's attention, including the ongoing protests," said a Meta spokesperson.

“Over the past week, we have removed groups and pages run by spammers from various countries around the world who use abusive tactics to mislead people about the origin and popularity of their content to direct them to off-platform websites to monetize ad clicks.” .

More than two weeks since the Freedom Convoy disembarked in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital has been crippled by anti-vaccine protesters using their trucks and cars to block entry to the downtown core.

The protests have attracted a diverse crew of far-right individuals and groups, including the Queen of Canada's QAnon. According to NBC News, anti-vaccine groups in the US are planning to stage similar protests in cities across the country.

On Facebook, Telegram and voice chat app Zello, the groups have asked their members to travel to Washington DC and Los Angeles on March 5.

The involvement of foreign actors trying to support these efforts mirrors in some ways what happened in 2016 when Russia interfered in the presidential election.