The internet is a pretty amazing place, but it’s also a little tricky.
With so many social media sites and sharing opportunities available, pretty much anyone can post whatever they want and have it be consumed by others.
While this freedom has allowed for a lot of unique and creative content to be shared, it has also allowed for the spread of misleading and misinformed content, which is then treated as fact.
Recently, there has been an effort by social media sites to prevent the spread of misinformation online.
Particularly as it pertains to the anti-vaccination movement.
Earlier this year, YouTube demonetized anti-vax channels.
Amazon has also removed anti-vax documentaries from its site while Facebook has announced plans to bar anti-vax groups and pages from advertising, Buzzfeed News reported.
Now Instagram is joining the anti-misinformation efforts and will soon unroll a filter for its content.
According to Buzzfeed News, this filter will use AI technology to prevent the spread of misinformation at the hands of anti-vaxxers by using a pop-up that will appear when certain anti-vax terms are searched.
While specific anti-vax accounts won’t be targeted, related content will be filtered.
This type of pop-up is already being used on Instagram for terms related to suicide and self-harm.
The pop-up displays a warning to users and offers a link that will take the user to a separate web page with supportive resources.
America is currently experiencing an unprecedented measles outbreak.
Recently, ABC News reported that there are now 764 confirmed cases of measles in America. And that number is expected to increase.
In April, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced he was putting an emergency order in place that would require unvaccinated people of a certain zip code to get vaccinated or be fined in an effort to halt the outbreak of measles in the Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg.
At this time there is no known launch date for the anti-vax filter.
However, as the number of reported measles outbreak in America steadily continuing to grow, we could see this filter unrolled very soon.
h/t: Buzzfeed News
