Social media firms must face sanction for ‘anti-vax content’, demands Labour

Opposition claims that online disinformation poses a threat to the effective take-up of coronavirus vaccines

Social media companies that fail to act to stamp out dangerous anti-vaccine content" should be subject to financial and criminal penalties, Labour has demanded.

As hopes rise that a vaccine against coronavirus could be ready within weeks, analysis by Labour has revealed that dedicated online groups with hundreds of thousands of members are still churning out disinformation - despite the new measures announced by the government and social media companies last week to tackle the issue.