Facebook’s vaccine misinformation policies were not effective, new study finds

New research suggests Facebook's vaccine misinformation policies were not effective in combating misinformation.

Facebook's efforts were undermined by the core design features of the platform itself.

Facebook is designed to build communities around the things people care about.

The researchers found that people were equally likely to engage with vaccine misinformation before and after Facebook's extensive removal efforts.

This is the first and only scientific evaluation of the efficacy of Facebook’s attempt to systematically remove misinformation and misinformative accounts.

The study, “ The Efficacy of Vaccine Misinformation Policies and Architecture During The COVID-19 Pandemic ” was published in Science Advances .