Chhavideep Singh
SourcE: TechCrunch
Facebook, the social media conglomerate is working fingers to the bone to stop the spread of vaccine misinformation on its platform and is definitely taking the extra mile to help the United States government deliver or on their COVID-19 vaccination drive. However, Facebook users might not be into the common belief system at all. Users have found a way to bypass the policy guidelines and standards set by Facebook against the spread of vaccine misinformation and that too by one of the platform’s own features.
Facebook allows its users to create profile picture frames that they can upload along with their profile pictures to support a cause or an event. The platform allows users to use the feature freely but it has taken a U-turn, if I may say so. Individuals are creating custom borders on anti-vaccine and vaccine misinformation and sharing it with users on the platform. Recently, borders were found by CNBC and they certainly express “anti-vaccine” intentions, the same that Facebook has been trying to prevent from spreading for so long now.
The social media conglomerate is well aware of how Facebook can quickly become a platform to spread misinformation about the vaccine, COVID-19 in general and hate on the government for forcing certain policies and restrictions. The company knows that if any of this happens, it is going to be responsible for the damage and the government might ask Facebook to shut down. Yes, you can call this extreme but the situation of COVID-19 around the globe is even worse. So instead, Facebook is trying to go that extra mile to reverse the power of its influence and use it for the greater good of the community by banning content suggesting COVID-19 vaccination is useless and “I’d rather trust my immune system than a vaccine” or “It’s safer to get sick from Coronavirus than to get vaccinated against it” etc.
All of these are still about COVID-19 and its vaccination but users have gone to the extents of using profile frames to show support for “George Floyd- Black Lives Matter” and “Je Suis Charlie”, a slogan that went viral after the Charlie Hebdo shooting incident of 2015.
According to a report by Engadget, Facebook has exclusively mentioned in a statement that it is promoting profile frames that encourage people to share support for COVID-19 vaccination and removing any such post, comment, profile frame, profile picture, video or story that suggest otherwise and break its rules.
Pro-vaccine profile frames are being constantly pushed and promoted by Facebook to encourage people into getting the vaccination.