Anti-vaccine groups are at the top of many vaccine-related searches on Facebook, and despite the social media giant's efforts to curb "fake news," the site is still a hub for theories about vaccines causing autism or other diseases, The Daily Beast reports.
When searching for vaccine information on Facebook, the top results returned anti-vaxx groups with names like "United Against Vaccines" or "Vaccines Injury Stories," The Daily Beast reports.
A Facebook page called "The Truth About Vaccines" has more than 130,000 followers, who receive posts with articles claiming children who don't receive vaccines are healthier than those who do. In a post page called "Stop Mandatory Vaccination," the page's operator assured its more than 110,000 followers they don't need vaccinations.
Facebook removes information that violates its community guidelines and allows users to tailor the information they see on the site, a company spokesperson told The Daily Beast. It has also tried to offer third-party fact-checking alongside inaccurate articles on a user's news feed but did not comment on why it makes it so easy to find anti-vaxx groups on searches.
Anti-vaxxers have led to an increase in the number of families who don't vaccinate their children, a recent study found, forming "hot spots" of unvaccinated people in cities including Portland, Detroit and Houston.
In a recent paper, two Australian researchers studied how anti-vaccination Facebook users gather in tight networks of Facebook groups on the site.
Since anti-vaccination groups are scattered among many smaller Facebook groups, as opposed to being found around one or two main hubs, it is difficult for Facebook to take much action against them, Naomi Smith, lecturer at Federal University Australia and co-author of the paper, told The Daily Beast.
Social media sites like Facebook are the key spreaders of vaccination fears, Ms. Smith said, because they connect people who would not have found traction for their vaccination fears in the real world.
And Facebook's efforts to control fake news haven't affected these anti-vaccine groups, Ms. Smith said.
"They seem to be doing just fine," she told The Daily Beast.