By Pascal Oparada
Social Media/Tech Reporter
Facebook says it is downgrading misleading health information on its News Feed.
The tech giants announced today that two algorithm changes will downplay unsubstantiated health stories like miracle cures that took the social media by storm recently.
“Posts with sensational health claims or solicitation using health-related claims will have reduced distribution,” explains Facebook. “Pages should avoid posts about health that exaggerate or mislead people and posts that try to sell products using health-related claims. If a Page stops posting this content, their posts will no longer be affected by this change,” it says.
Users have been swooning over claims that drinking bleach is a miracle cure for diseases and other health challenges.
The two algorithm changes would address dangerous miracle cures and the other will focus more on reducing the spread of posts trying to make money through unsubstantiated health claims, like weight loss pills.
Analysts believe the changes may overlook a popular means of spreading falsehood on the platform.
According to them, individuals are primary sources of misinformation on the platform.
In 2018, the social media giant changed its algorithm to reduce clickbaits by news and media organisation when a London based data mining firm, Cambridge Analytica, illegally harvested data of over 87 million users on Facebook.
The company has been hit by series of fines in many countries, especially Europe for privacy breach.
