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In the midst of a growing measles epidemic which health officials largely blame on anti-vaccination myths, social media site Pinterest has taken an unprecedented step.
They have begun blocking all vaccination-related searches to stop the spread of misinformation, while Facebook takes measures as well.
Pinterest told news outlets that it was placing a ban on all vaccination searches while it seeks to find a permanent solution to filtering out misinformation.
“We want Pinterest to be an inspiring place for people, and there’s nothing inspiring about misinformation,” a spokesperson for the social media website said in a statement to CNBC. “That’s why we continue to work on new ways of keeping misleading content off our platform and out of our recommendations engine.”
Last week, Facebook also made an announcement that they had “taken steps” toward reducing the amount of fake health news spread on its platform. The social media network also said they were considering “hiding” all anti-vaccination posts.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been ramping up efforts to slow down the growing measles epidemic that they say is a result of vaccination misinformation.
One of the pervasive myths about vaccinations is that they cause autism. However, the CDC has repeatedly said that no link exists between ingredients in vaccines and the cause of autism.
Both the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) have said that the growing number of parents choosing not to vaccinate their children has become a major global health threat in 2019. The CDC says the number of children not being vaccinated has been continually growing.
Just this week, the FDA announced that it may intervene against states who continue to allow nonmedical exemptions from childhood vaccinations.
The state of Washington was forced to declare a Public Health Emergency over the measles outbreak there.
