Facebook Inc. takes action against "disinformation dozen"

Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) announced that it has taken action against the "Disinformation Dozen" a month after the White House identified twelve people allegedly responsible for most of the coronavirus misinformation. Monika Bickert, vice president of content policy for the company, argued it was wrong to assume that the twelve accounts were the main culprits in spreading the COVID-19 misinformation. She said that if you just focus on these accounts, you won't see the forest for the trees. She said, "Any amount of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation that violates our guidelines is too much by our standards - and we have over three dozen pages, groups, and Facebook or Instagram accounts that feature these twelve people are removed, including at least one associated with each of the twelve people for violating our guidelines. " Bickert added that the social media company has sanctioned nearly two dozen other sites, accounts and groups associated with the twelve people. The penalties were also applied to their website domains. It's important to note that the non-profit Center for Fighting Digital Hate originally identified the disinformation dozen back in March this year and asked the social media company to close the accounts they run. The White House criticized the company and reprimanded Facebook in July for continuing to allow people who spread hatred on the platform. At the time, the White House press secretary stated, "There are about 12 people who produce 65% of anti-vaccination misinformation on social media platforms." Although Facebook has taken action against these people, the White House remains critical of the company. A White House spokesman also said: "In the middle of a pandemic, being honest and transparent about the work that needs to be done to protect public health is absolutely vital, but Facebook still refuses to be honest about how there is a lot of misinformation circulating on his platform - and actively promoted. "