Facebook's Health Crackdown

Good afternoon, readers! (The 4th of July weekend is almost upon us, we’ll make it.)

Facebook has, for a variety of reasons, become a central target for privacy, media, and health care watchdog organizations alike. The company announced Tuesday that it’s making moves to mitigate its own role in perpetuating false health information via its platform.

“We know that people don’t like posts that are sensational or spammy, and misleading health content is particularly bad for our community. So, last month we made two ranking updates to reduce (1) posts with exaggerated or sensational health claims and (2) posts attempting to sell products or services based on health-related claims,” the social media giant wrote in a blog post.

Just how will Facebook go about that effort? For one, the company said it will home in on “phrases that were commonly used in these posts to predict which posts might include sensational health claims or promotion of products with health-related claims, and then showing these lower in News Feed.”

Facebook, Google, and other tech giants have come under pressure to control the rampant scientific and health misinformation spread via their various platforms. Facebook, specifically, has been cited as a breeding ground for unfounded anti-vaccine skepticism in an era of resurgent infectious diseases which were once thought to be under control.

Read on for the day’s news.

Sy Mukherjee

@the_sy_guy

sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com

DIGITAL HEALTH

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INDICATIONS

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