On 15th March, Facebook announced that it will launch a global campaign to help people get COVID-19 vaccines and support the ongoing vaccination effort. Under the campaign, Facebook will expand ways to help people get registered for COVID-19 vaccination including:

  1. Launch a new tool to inform people about where and when to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
  2. Add COVID-19 Information Center to Instagram
  3. Expand use of WhatsApp chatbots to provide up-to-date vaccine information to people quickly.
  4. Add labels on posts related to COVID-19 vaccines from the World Health Organization.

Soon Facebook will launch a tool that shows people when and where they can get COVID-19 vaccines. The tool will also provide a link to people so that they can get an appointment for COVID-19 vaccination. The tool will be available in Facebook’s Covid Information Center that will be shown in users’ News Feed. The tool will be available in 71 languages.

Currently, Facebook is working with Boston Children’s Hospital to offer the tool in Facebook’s COVID-19 Information Center in the US. Using this tool, VaccineFinder can add their location and find places around them to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The tool will also include contact information, hours of operation, and links to make an appointment for COVID-19 vaccination. Facebook will then expand to other countries.

Facebook is also planning to add the COVID-19 Information Center to its other social media platform Instagram. This will help its users get all the COVID-19 related information from health ministries and the World Health Organisation. Facebook will also introduce new stickers on Instagram that will connect users to the COVID-19 Information Center. The stickers will be available on Instagram Stories and will help people inspire others to get vaccinated.

Facebook is working closely with the government to encourage the use of its WhatsApp chatbots to make it easier for people to register for COVID-19 vaccination. Several health organizations and government institutes are already using WhatsApp chatbots to send information related to COVID-19 to people. They have sent over 3 billion messages to citizens.

  • Buenos Aires, Argentina is using WhatsApp to send notifications to people about the COVID-19 vaccination.
  • The Ministry of Health in Indonesia is using the WhatsApp helpline for vaccine registration in the Phase II vaccination drive.

Facebook is expanding its efforts to reduce the spread of any misinformation about the COVID-19 and vaccine. It is adding labels to all the posts that contain information about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines from WHO. This label is launched in several languages including English, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Portuguese, and Arabic. Facebook will add more languages in the upcoming weeks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook has also removed around 2 million posts that contain false claims about the coronavirus and vaccines.

Facebook is providing real-time COVID-19 vaccine information available on social media such as Facebook and Instagram via CrowdTangle’s COVID-19 Live Displays. The COVID-19 Live Displays is available in 34 languages and can be accessed by global aid organizations, journalists, and others. It gives real-time data from 104 countries and all 50 states in the US.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said “Today we’re launching a global campaign to help bring 50 million people a step closer to getting COVID-19vaccines. We’ve already connected over 2 billion people to authoritative COVID-19information. Now that many countries are moving towards vaccinations for all adults, we’re working on tools to make it easier for everyone to get vaccinated as well”.

Mark Zuckerberg added “The data shows the vaccines are safe and they work. They’re our best hope for getting past this virus and getting back to normal life. I’m looking forward to getting mine, and I hope you are too.”