Pins and needles: Pinterest tackles spread of vaccine misinformation

Pinterest, the social media web and mobile application company which collates information on a variety of sites by topic, recognizes the critical role that social media plays in spreading health misinformation, and has taken several radical steps to correct this. First, in 2018, Pinterest voluntarily stopped showing results for searches related to vaccines. Instead, the page simply said, “If you’re looking for medical advice, please contact a healthcare provider.” It asked experts how it could improve this search. As a result, the company put many leading antivaccine websites on its banned list, and blocked the URLs in toto, so that anything from that website can no longer be pinned. Hundreds of such actions have been taken, it says. The social media giant has now taken another bold step: it will show results to searches for over 200 vaccine-related search terms like “vaccine safety”, or “measles”, but all the results will come from public health organizations. These include the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and its auxiliary, the Vaccine Safety Net.