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MISINFORMATION: Facebook to label posts on COVID-19 vaccine

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Facebook Inc, on Monday said it has put in place measures to check misinformation and conspiracies concerning the Covid-19 vaccine on its platform.

The social media platform said it has started adding labels to posts that discuss the safety of the shots and will soon label all posts about the vaccines, Reuters reports.

The social media company, which lawmakers and researchers have criticised for allowing vaccine misinformation to spread on its platforms, said in a blog post that measures were now in place to check that.

READ ALSO: Russia sues Google, Facebook, Twitter, others for refusal to delete protest content

It also said it was launching a tool in the U.S. to give people information about where to get COVID-19 vaccines and adding a COVID-19 information area to Instagram, its photo-sharing site.

Facebook’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, said in an interview that the company had taken viral false claims “very seriously” but said there was “a huge gray area of people who had concerns.”

“The best thing to do in that huge gray area is just to show up with authoritative information in a helpful way, be a part of the conversation and do it with health experts,” Cox added.

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