Facebook Inc. is facing growing pressure to do something about the spread of anti-vaccination content that surfaces on its platform.

A number of health experts this week stated their case in an article published by The Guardian, each saying that the misinformation doing the rounds on the social media platform is an imminent threat to people’s health.

That followed reports of measles outbreaks around the world, a global increase of around 30 percent, according to the World Health Organization. It has called “vaccine hesitancy” one of the top 10 threats to global health.

Facebook is said to be part of the problem, with so-called “anti-vaxxers” airing their views in closed and public groups. One such group, “Stop Mandatory Vaccination,” has about 154,000 members, while a quick search will reveal scores of groups sharing information relating to the “truth” about vaccines. Doctors around the world are saying Facebook has in recent years been the place where parents learned not to vaccinate their kids.

“Facebook should prioritize dealing with the threat to human health when falsehoods and misinformation are shared,” Wendy Sue Swanson, a spokeswoman of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Guardian. “This isn’t just self-harm, it’s community harm.”

The question is: Should Facebook moderate or pull down anti-vaccine content? Noni MacDonald, a professor of pediatrics at Dalhousie University, told The Guardian she thinks so.

“We don’t let big pharma or big food or big radio companies do this, so why should we let this happen in this venue?” she said. “When a drug company puts a drug up in the formal media, they can’t tell you something false or they will be sued. So why is this different? Why is this allowed?”

As the U.S. sees a rise in measles cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the the number of children not being protected against vaccine-preventable diseases is on the rise.

Facebook responded to the Washington Post regarding the accusation that it’s not doing enough to stop of the spread of anti-vaccine content, saying the community has the option to control what it sees and to ignore or discuss content. “If the content they’re posting crosses the line and violates our policies, we would remove the content as soon as we become aware of it,” Facebook added.

Photo: PanAmericanHealth/Flickr