Facebook removed COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in Israel after government request

• Facebook removed anti-vaccine content in Israel after a Justice Ministry request, according to Reuters.
• The content posted on four Hebrew-language groups included photos, videos, and text posts, per the report. It said vaccines included microscopic tracking chips. 
• The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday received the first vaccine shot in Israel. “It’s a small shot for a person and a huge step toward the health of us all,” he said, per The Jerusalem Post.
• In March 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Facebook announced its plans to reduce the spread of vaccine misinformation.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Facebook removed anti-vaccine content in Israel after a government request.

Officials from the Israeli justice ministry asked the social media company to remove four groups that had posted “deliberately mendacious content designed to mislead about coronavirus vaccines,” a ministry representative told Reuters. 

The content posted on the four Hebrew-language groups reportedly included photos, videos, and text posts, per the report. Some content reportedly said the vaccine shots include tiny tracking chips, allowing the government to track and experiment on the Israeli population. 

Facebook didn’t immediately respond to request for comment. 

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday received the first vaccine in the country, according to The Jerusalem Post. Health minister Yuli Edelstein received the second jab. The event was streamed live on YouTube. 

"It's a small shot for a person and a huge step toward the health of us all," Netanyahu reportedly said.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Facebook had a stern policy about posts spreading misinformation about vaccines.

In March 2019, the company said it would reject ads that spread misinformation about vaccines, and would reduce rankings in feeds for pages that spread such information. 

"We are exploring ways to give people more accurate information from expert organizations about vaccines at the top of results for related searches, on Pages discussing the topic, and on invitations to join groups about the topic," the company said at the time. 

A few months later, in September 2019, the company rolled out a feature that would redirect people searching for "vaccine" or other terms.

Instead of taking them to anti-vaccine misinformation, Facebook would instead direct them to information from the World Health Organization or other "authoritative" organization. 

A Facebook spokesperson on Sunday told Reuters the Israeli groups had violated Facebook's misinformation policies. 

Reporter Kevin Shalvey worked at Facebook from 2018 to 2019.