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Social media posts spreading 'hatred, misinformation' about polio vaccination removed
Prime Minister's Focal Person on Polio Eradication Babar bin Atta on Friday said that a large number of posts on social media that were spreading "hatred and misinformation" about polio vaccination have been removed.
In a statement today, Atta said that a large number of Facebook posts, hundreds of videos from YouTube and tweets have been removed. He added that Google has also issued a warning to those who were spreading anti-polio vaccine content on YouTube and that the process of issuing warnings is ongoing.
Atta said that the government has decided to speed up legal prosecution following a long video conference with Facebook officials.
Read: ‘Polio programme failed to deal with recent disinformation campaign’
In a post shared on Twitter on Thursday, Atta confirmed that social media platforms, including Facebook, had started to delete and block some of the material "spreading hatred and misinformation regarding polio vaccines in Pakistan".
The focal person on polio eradication had earlier written a letter to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
In a letter to Atta yesterday, following his meeting with the PTA chairman, the telecommunication authority provided a summary of anti-vaccination links that been blocked as of May 9:
- Facebook: 130
- Twitter: 14
- YouTube: 30
As a whole, 174 anti-vaccination links have been blocked so far.
Last week, Pakistan had urged Facebook to remove harmful polio-related content from the social networking site, saying it was jeopardising eradication initiatives and putting the lives of vaccinators at risk.
In recent months social media in the country has been inundated with fake news reports and videos — garnering thousands of views and shares in the last week alone — claiming numerous children have been killed by the polio vaccine. Thousands of parents have refused to allow their children to be inoculated.
At least three people were killed in the last country-wide anti-polio campaign in April.
The violence coincided with an outbreak of hysteria in cities across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after rumours of children suffering from adverse reactions to a polio vaccine sparked panic, with tens of thousands rushed to hospitals.
Comments (8) Closed
No doubt, social media is the home of false, fraud and futile media outlets bent upon spreading fake news.
It is a simple matter of public welfare that the insane public is opposing due to utter ignorance. Government must change gear and tackle the bull of ignorance by it's horns, by introducing monetary awards for those who come forward for the voluntary polio vaccination of their children.
A lot of damage has already been done due ,sadly,to highly ignorant behaviour of people. It's time polio was declared a national emergency . Special laws must be enacted to ensure compliance with vaccinations , severe punishment for those refusing or obstructing the vaccination drive , removing from service of those employees who are unwilling workers , break the cold chain , willfully destroy vaccines , absence or refusing to serve. May be more technological input will greatly improve coverance and compliance.
Not good enough, make a law with one month of hard labour.
Can we really trust out government full of lies?
Removing some facebook and YouTube post will not improve anything on ground level. The people who are spreading this misinformation are still there and people who are believing it too. Nothing Gonna change if work is not done on ground level.
Finally. Don't Pakistanis already live in enough fear without that?
We can't blame on social media is 100% false sometimes they informed the reality