Facebook 'tried to censor posts about vaccine hesitancy, internal memos leaked by whistleblowers claim'

Whistleblowers from inside Facebook say that the social network is censoring skeptics of the COVID-19 vaccine by demoting user comments by way of an algorithm that calculates a 'vaccine hesitancy score,' Project Veritas claims.

Whistleblowers from inside Facebook say that the social network is censoring skeptics of the COVID-19 vaccine by demoting user comments by way of an algorithm that calculates a 'vaccine hesitancy score,' Project Veritas claims.

The documents purport to show that the beta version was being tested on 1.5 per cent of some 3.8 billion users of Facebook and its subsidiary, Instagram, around the world.

'Based on that VH score, we will demote or leave the comment alone depending on the content within the comment,' one of the anonymous whistleblowers told Project Veritas.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Facebook seeking comment.

In a statement to Project Veritas, a spokesman said: 'We proactively announced this policy on our company blog and also updated our help center with this information.' 

Project Veritas says it obtained the purportedly leaked documents from whistleblowers.

The title of the document reads 'Vaccine Hesitancy Comment Demotion.'

In its 'executive summary' section, it states that the goal is to 'drastically reduce user exposure to vaccine hesitancy (VH) in comments.'

The document states that 'reducing the visibility of these comments represents another significant opportunity for us to remove barriers to vaccination that users on the platform may potentially encounter.'

Facebook's aim is to 'decrease in other engagement of VH comments including crate, likes, reports [and] replies.'

'The narrative [is] get the vaccine, the vaccine is good for you, everyone should get it,' the documents state.

'If you don't, you will be singled out as an enemy of society.'