Facebook is taking action to reduce the incidence of misleading health claims in our news feeds.
The company says it is targeting sensational and misleading claims, including spam, which relies on claimed health benefits:
Facebook cites “miracle cure” claims as a particular focus.
In our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of information in News Feed, we consider ranking changes based on how they affect people, publishers, and our community as a whole. We know that people don’t like posts that are sensational or spammy, and misleading health content is particularly bad for our community. So last month we made two ranking updates to reduce (1) posts with exaggerated or sensational health claims, and (2) posts attempting to sell products or services based on health-related claims.
The social network says that it will be taking the same approach as it has used with other misleading content: scanning for phrases typically used in sketchy posts.
Facebook isn’t on the greatest of terms with Apple of late. After Apple turned off Facebook’s access to enterprise certificates because the company was abusing them, CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly insist senior execs stop using iPhones. The social network also apparently saw Tim Cook’s commencement speech remarks as targeting them, with global affairs head Nick Clegg accusing Apple of being an “exclusive club available only to aspirant consumers.”
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