Pinterest is taking a stand against the anti-vaxxer movement blamed for fueling US outbreaks of the measles by removing any content advising against shots.
The move by inspiration-oriented social media site has been criticized for broadly blocking any search results for terms like 'vaccination' or 'vaccine.'
But DailyMail.com discovered that even that the seemingly radical measure fails to keep out anti-vaxxer posts, like those promoting a film by disgraced scientist Andrew Wakefield, whose debunked research incorrectly linked shots to autism.
Measles outbreaks have cropped out in 10 US states, sickening at least 127 people and centering around anti-vaxxer 'hotspots.'
Misguided theories that vaccines - like the measles, mumps and rubella shot - are dangerous and cause autism spread like wildfire in online communities.
So social media companies find themselves in the crossfire of free speech and dangerous misinformation.
Pinterest was an early adopter of policies against health misinformation. It has expanded its attempts against anti-vaxxer content to block all searchers for 'vaccine' - but it doesn't work
In fact, two recent studies found that about half of all parents are exposed to health misinformation and, alarmingly, that Russian bots have played a significant role in the spread of false information about vaccines in the US via Twitter.
Alarmed by this pattern, Representative Adam Schiff of California, penned a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging him to intervene in the dissemination of vaccine misinformation on the platform of over a billion users.
'The algorithms which power these services are not designed to distinguish quality information from misinformation or misleading information, and the consequences of that are particularly troubling for public health issues,' Schiff wrote last week.
And a Congressional hearing on the outbreak is schedules for February 27, while a Senate analogue is on the books for March 5.
For its part, Pinterest preempted the current debacle of medical misinformation in 2017.
The social media site - where users create digital inspiration boards - takes a clear stance against invalid health advice and promises to remove such content from its site.
'We don’t allow advice when it has immediate and detrimental effects on a Pinner’s health or on public safety' the policy states.
It even goes a step further and addresses anti-vax sentiments direction.
'This includes promotion of false cures for terminal or chronic illnesses and anti-vaccination advice.'
But detecting and removing specifically anti-vaccination posts proved such a challenge that Pinterest wound up switching over to a more broad sweeping method.
As part of its 'enforcement' strategy, Pinterest has begun wholesale blocking results for all vaccine-related searches.
By way of explanation, its policy says: 'If a search returns largely polluted results that violate our policies, we will stop serving the query, either temporarily or permanently.
Recently, Pinterest simply started blocking results for the search term 'vaccination' (pictured) because the Pins it returned were 'polluted' a move some saw as radical
'We started blocking certain searches related to
