Facebook to help 50M people get vaccines, to add labels to fake posts

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Facebook to help 50M people get vaccines, to add labels to fake posts

Last Updated : 16 Mar 2021 04:50:19 AM IST

Facebook to help 50M people get vaccines, to add labels to fake posts

In an effort to help 50 million people get Covid-19 vaccines, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announced new tools, along with expanding efforts to address Covid-19 vaccine misinformation by adding labels to Facebook and Instagram posts that discuss the vaccines.

Facebook is adding a label on posts that discuss the safety of Covid-19 vaccines, that notes Covid-19 vaccines go through tests for safety and effectiveness before they're approved.

In the coming weeks, Facebook will roll out labels on all posts generally about vaccines that point people to the Covid Information Centre globally, and plan to add additional targeted labels about Covid-19 vaccine subtopics.

One of the new tools announced by the company will show you when and where you can get vaccinated, and gives you a link to make an appointment. The new tool will be available in the Covid Information Centre, that Facebook will show right in your News Feed.

"We've already seen people use Facebook to find vaccination appointments, so this should enable millions more people to do the same," Zuckerberg said in a post.

The social network said it has already connected over 2 billion people to authoritative Covid-19 information.

Zuckerberg also announced to bring the Covid Information Centre to Instagram.

The company said it will release new stickers on Instagram Stories, so people can inspire others to get vaccinated when it becomes available to them.

He said the company is now working with health authorities and governments to expand their WhatsApp chatbots to help people register for vaccines.

"More than 3 billion messages related to Covid have already been sent by governments, nonprofits and international organizations to citizens through official WhatsApp chatbots, so this update will help with the vaccination effort as well," Zuckerberg said.

To date, 3 billion messages have been sent by governments, nonprofits and international organizations to citizens through official WhatsApp chatbots on Covid-19

The company said it is expanding its efforts to address Covid-19 vaccine misinformation.

"We're adding a label on posts that discuss the safety of Covid-19 vaccines that notes Covid-19 vaccines go through tests for safety and effectiveness before they're approved," said Facebook.