Facebook INC said on Tuesday it had been taking steps to scale back promotion of merchandise based on deceptive health-related claims.
In a blog post, the social media company said it had created 2 updates last month to cut back posts with exaggerated or “sensational”
health claims.
Facebook said it’ll take
actions to cut back posts creating assertions about a “miracle cure,”
and against the ones aimed to push merchandise or services on health-related claims, like a pill for weight loss.
The company and its peers around the world are below growing pressure to rid their platforms of “fake
news” and misinformation, and the spread of deceptive health
claims were highlighted as a
concern in some recent media reports.
The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Facebook and
YouTube were crammed with “harmful
information” concerning health
treatments.
“We understand that
people don’t like posts that are sensational or spammy, and deceptive health content is especially dangerous for our
community,” Facebook product manager Travis Yeh said.
The update won’t have a
significant impact on users’ news feed, Facebook said.