Hello!

54 Comments

Two big social media influencers have had restrictions put on their Instagram accounts for spreading anti-vaxxer messages.

The wives of two Rugby league players have been put on notice!

Taylor Winterstein, wife of new Penrith Panther recruit Frank Winterstein, and Shanelle Cartwright who is married to Gold Coast Titans player Bryce Cartwright, have reportedly been caught up in the move by Facebook and Instagram’s policy to clamp down on harmful misinformation around vaccines.

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, Instagram has taken action against both women, ensuring they cannot post permanently on their feeds. The women’s accounts can reportedly only post on a temporary feed which disappears after 24 hours.

In a statement issued to news.com.au, an Instagram spokesperson said the company is working to remove “vaccine hoaxes”.

“As part of our work to address health-related misinformation on Instagram, we’re exploring ways to reduce the distribution of vaccine misinformation,” they said.

“We are relying on the work of leading global health organisations, such as the World Health Organisation, which have publicly identified verifiable vaccine hoaxes. If these vaccine hoaxes appear on our platforms, we will take action against them.”

Both Facebook and Instagram are exploring ways to minimise the spread of such disinformation via measures like blocking hashtags, and removing sensitive subjects from its “Suggest for you” and search functions.

“We will reduce the ranking of groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in News Feed and Search,” Facebook said when it announced the new rules on March 7.

“We are exploring ways to share educational information about vaccines when people come across misinformation on this topic.”

Pinterest and YouTube are also actively working to prevent misinformation regarding the effectiveness and safety of vaccinations. Read more on that here.

So good to hear!  We recently shared our concerns over this matter, “The Real Danger of Influencers Making Crazy Claims”

Pete Evans has also been caught up in the antivaxx movement with the medical assoc telling him he should stick with cooking!

Read more on this topic below:

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.
  • It’s sad that it has come to this. People should make up their own mind about this information and do research but instead these peoples oinions are taken as gospel.

    Reply

  • Surely people should make up their own mind about their child’s safety rather than taking notice of someone who happens to be famous (doesn’t mean they know squat).

    Reply

  • So many people have an opinion that isn’t always correct and if they’re famous in some way, more people notice and believe it too. Not just anti vaxxers, could be anything such as having to be vegan, or conspiracy theories. I make up my own mind no matter who says what.

    Reply

  • Yay! Hand clap for this ????????????????????????????????????????????????People who aren’t experts convincing others to make dangerous choices

    Reply

  • Surely parents can go to their GP for proper professional advice on vaccines. I know I would trust my GP more then some celebrity. I would have thought they should have known better, but it seems they need to be better educated

    Reply

  • Sounds a great outcome to me!

    Reply

  • Glad these “influencers” aren’t allowed to spread mis-information. Surely vaccinations should be something that we discuss with the family doctor/ paediatrician rather than on social media with strangers.

    Reply

  • So much mis-information is out there. It’s good to see social media platforms finally taking some responsibility.

    Reply

  • The nasty side of social media. People are so very easily influenced. People need to make informed decisions and do research for themselves and talk to professionals! Not social media “influencers”. This is a great step towards making sure people who are unqualified to talk about these things don’t.

    Reply

  • So pleased to hear they can no longer influence other people’s thinking.

    Reply

  • It isn’t fair that people like this have such a great platform to educate people about issues and they choose something they personally have no knowledge of.

    Reply

  • Celebrities? Really?? They married a footballer that does not make them a celebrity. And why do people get influenced by the opinion of a local footballers wife over the opinions of millions of well educated doctors and scientists that have studied the effects of vaccines since their introduction? People need to use their own brains and stop thinking because someone on the internet says it it must be true.

    Reply

  • It should be Mandatory that children get vaccinated the disease that are around from not getting there child vaccinated is life threatening and unfortunately is passed onto babies or elderly and people who are already immune depressed from being unwell such as cff, cancer etc before they can get vaccinated not only that I recently went to a conference for work and the are showing the kids that aren’t vaccinated have a high percentage like 80% chance of getting hep B when they are older and when they do get sick with measles , polio they can be dangerous and cause problems or life threatening

    Reply

  • It’s a great reminder that Facebook is a site for opinions. I hate that it is sensoring opinions although when people are making decisions based off an opinion it can be dangerous.

    Reply

  • I don’t think they should be deleted. Last time I checked Australia is a free country? But anytime anyone has their own opinion, it gets deleted..
    I vaccinate my kids, I don’t really cate about other people not agreeing with it.
    Celebrity’s do a lot more damage than sharing about there disagreement with vaccines! None of the other stuff gets deleted.

    Reply

Post a comment
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your comment and join MoM:

You May Like

Loading…

Looks like this may be blocked by your browser or content filtering.

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join