Facebook has banned anti-vax misinformation and will take down any posts saying vaccines cause autism.

This comes in the wake of social media platforms taking more responsibility for the spread of misinformation after Donald Trump's repeated unfounded claims of widespread electoral fraud saw him permanently banned from almost every platform including Twitter.

Now, as Covid-19 vaccines are being administered around the world, Facebook has taken steps to ban misinformation about them.

A phone tha reads Facebook. [[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

Some of the false claims that people have already attempted to spread about the vaccine are that Covid-19 is a manmade disease, the vaccines aren't effective, and the general but widely spread false belief that vaccines are dangerous or cause autism.

Facebook issued a statement yesterday (February 8) explaining how it plans to remove false and misleading information from its platform.

It read: "Today, we are expanding our efforts to remove false claims on Facebook and Instagram about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general during the pandemic. Since December, we've removed false claims about COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts."

A woman receiving a Covid vaccine. [[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

It continued: "Following consultations with leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), we are expanding the list of false claims we will remove to include additional debunked claims about the coronavirus and vaccines."

Facebook added that the new policy will be immediately enforced and will "help [them] continue to take aggressive action against misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines".

The statement explained: "We will begin enforcing this policy immediately, with a particular focus on Pages, groups and accounts that violate these rules, and we'll continue to expand our enforcement over the coming weeks. Groups, Pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these debunked claims may be removed altogether."

The Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine. [[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

Facebook will be enforcing its policy in various ways, such as by promoting relevant, scientifically approved information about the virus on the platform if people search for information about Covid-19.

The social media website's decision will undoubtedly be approved by many as conspiracy theories about the virus are still causing much division around the world.

Facebook to ban anti-vaxx misinformation and will take down posts saying vaccines cause autism