As anti-vax movement gets weirder--and dumber--Facebook announces crackdown

[workinclasszero]

Anti-vaxxers falsely claim measles prevents cancer and can be treated with antibiotics.

BETH MOLE - 3/8/2019, 9:36 AM

Facing scrutiny for allowing anti-vaccine lies and conspiracy theories to fester and spread on its pages, Facebook announced Thursday a set of steps it will take to rid its platform of misinformation—which has seemingly become even weirder and more idiotic recently.

The move follows a letter sent to Facebook from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) last month, raising concerns that anti-vaccine information spread on the site could corrupt anxious parents’ views of safe, life-saving immunizations. Schiff also questioned the popular social media site about accepting payments from anti-vaccine advertisements.

Facebook wasn’t the only media giant questioned; Schiff sent a similar letter to Google, too, raising concerns about content on YouTube specifically. Still, Facebook has taken center stage on the issue.

In a Senate hearing last week exploring the rise of misinformation about vaccines (titled Vaccines Save Lives), a now-high-profile Ohio teenager made a point to single out the site. Ethan Lindenberger, the 18-year-old who famously got himself vaccinated despite his mother being fiercely against vaccines, said his mother’s false beliefs came from one place: Facebook. When a Senator asked Lindenberger where he got his information on vaccines, Lindenberger, chuckling, responded, “not Facebook.”

“From CDC, World Health Organization, scientific journals… accredited sources,” he added.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/as-anti-vax-movement-gets-weirder-and-dumber-facebook-announces-crackdown/

[TwilightZone]

1. "Facebook has taken center stage on the issue"

They should. They're responsible for an epidemic of stupidity and a black hole of ignorance.

[Puzzledtraveller]

2. Well, Im one of those people

that doesn't trust drug makers.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Not trusting drug makers is vastly different from thinking

measles prevents cancer.

Or that the only reason women get breast cancer is because they wear bras. Or, well I digress.

[peggysue2]

4. This nonsense is being amplified by chaos agents and fits into . . .

distrusting anything the government, science community and/or experts in the field say. It didn't just start with the Trumpster era. If you recall, Sarah Palin made snide remarks about intellectuals and experts, how everyone and anyone could simply trust their common sense. Or the Trumpster trusting his gut. This whole alternative medicine craze has picked up steam over the last few decades, exploited by right-wing radio and witch doctors claiming miraculous benefits from beneficial oils, magic stones, copper bracelets. They keep it up, we'll be deciding questions of war and peace by throwing chicken bones on the ground.

Anyone willing to trust their common sense neighbor to perform your heart surgery or fly you cross-country on a plane?

I don't think so.

Yet we have the likes of Rand Paul admitting he and his family have been vaccinated while saying he understands the problem mass vaccination poses to 'personal liberty.'

The liberty to die an unnecessary death or better yet infect someone with a low immune response, as in infants, the elderly or the medically compromised.

It's a selfish and stupid philosophy, a dog-eat-dog position.

These nitwits would to take us backwards. Maybe The Dark Ages. That was a roaring good time.

We need to stop the stupid. Before it kills us all.