There has been a growing movement against vaccines in recent years with parents in some communities across the country refusing to vaccinate their children. This can cause an outbreak of diseases like measles among others when someone picks it up, often from a visit overseas. Measles is contagious and can even be fatal for children. Some tech platforms are now doing their bit in preventing this and Indiegogo has joined them by no longer allowing anti-vaccine campaigns.
The anti-vaccine movement is largely based on the supposed link between vaccines and autism. Public health officials have long argued that such concerns are not based in fact. Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform, has now announced that it will no longer allow anti-vaccine and similar unscientific “health campaigns” to raise money through its platform.
It has made this decision after an anti-vaccine documentary projected raised over $86,000 on Indiegogo. The group behind that campaign will receive the money it raised but Indiegogo has told BuzzFeed News that it’s new policy is now going to keep anti-vaccine campaigns off its platform. That particular crowdfunding campaign didn’t violate Indiegogo’s existing policies and the platform ever promoted it on its website.
Facebook has also come out against the anti-vaccine movement by removing such groups from recommendations and ads so that it’s more difficult for users to find posts and pages against vaccines on the social network. Similar measures have also been implemented on Instagram.
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