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Facebook axed South American pages and groups promoting bleach as a COVID-19 cure after an Insider investigation
Facebook axed South American pages and groups promoting bleach as a COVID-19 cure after an Insider investigation
Tom PorterFeb 10, 2021, 23:02 IST
Medicine containing chlorine dioxide is seen at the Farmacia Boliviana in Cochabamba, Bolivia, July 21, 2020.REUTERS/Danilo Balderrama
Facebook shut down a group hyping bleach as a COVID-19 cure in South America.
The action came after Insider flagged the groups promoting
chlorine dioxide.
Public health bodies have warned repeatedly against taking the substance.
Facebook has removed pages and groups associated with a controversial group of medics promoting chlorine dioxide, a type of toxic bleach, as a COVID-19 treatment, following an Insider investigation.
REUTERS/Danilo Balderrama
The action came after Insider flagged the groups promoting chlorine dioxide.
Public health bodies have warned repeatedly against taking the substance.
Facebook has removed pages and groups associated with a controversial group of medics promoting chlorine dioxide, a type of toxic bleach, as a COVID-19 treatment, following an Insider investigation.
Insider found that a large network of groups associated with Comusav (Coalición Mundial Salud y Vida) were promoting the bleach on the platform to tens of thousands of followers in countries including Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia.
The largest group was in Mexico with 45,000 members, Argentina s had more than 12,000 while others had smaller but still sizeable memberships often of several thousand members.
Its pages boasted tens of thousands of users in countries including Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina and Ecuador.
One group for users in Mexico, seen by Insider, had 45,000 members.
Comusav in a statement to Insider claimed that the bleach treatment works, which is contested by medical authorities like the FDA, which says it is toxic and that there is no evidence it is effective as a treatment for any illness.
Though Facebook has introduced a number of policies that it says has reduced the ability of users to spread medical misinformation, advocates were still able to use the platform.
Before their removal, the groups existed in the open, and users made no attempt to conceal their activities and beliefs.