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About two weeks ago, social media company Facebook took action against the "Don't Let Vaccines Divide Us SG" Facebook group.

As of Dec. 2, however, this appears to have been reversed, with the group coming back online.

Group resumes discussions, sharing of information

Its members wasted no time, generating over 50 posts in the span of a few hours.

Many of the recent posts on the group revolved around topics like vaccination-differentiated measures in Singapore.

The questioned the effectiveness of vaccination in countering the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as calling attention to the Omicron variant and its implications on policy here.

Founder asks members to be "more conservative" on Facebook

The founder of the group, Maeghan Lee, said that it took "a bit of a back and forth with Facebook" before the group could be brought back online, and called for members to be "a little more conservative" in their Facebook posts.

"If you're unsure if your post will go against facebook's standards, share onto our telegram instead," Lee added.

Why was the group taken down?

On Nov. 15, the group's admins said that the group had been deemed to go against Facebook's "Community Standards on misinformation that could cause physical harm", in a Telegram message to the group.

They shared a screenshot of the Facebook notification they received:

What is Facebook's policy on Covid-19-related false information?

False claims about Covid-19 is one of the stated examples of the "limited cases" where Facebook will remove misinformation, because of its potential to cause "imminent physical harm", according to a post in its Transparency Center.

Facebook also maintains a published list of Covid-19-related false information which it will remove.

In response to Mothership's request for comment, a Facebook representative said on Dec. 2 that they did not have any information to share on the matter.

Group started amid vaccination-differentiated measures

The "Don't Let Vaccines Divide Us SG" group was started in response to vaccination-differentiated Covid-19 measures, or VDS.

Content posted in the group sought to raise awareness of the fact that there were different reasons for being unvaccinated, including being medically ineligible, or having had an adverse reaction to the first dose.

This came amid increasing restrictions on those who were unvaccinated in Singapore, such as restricting them to dining in at hawker centres and coffeeshops since August 10.

These measures have been tightened, including a requirement that those who remain unvaccinated by choice will have to pay for their own Covid-19 treatment, from Dec. 8, 2021, as part of the government taking a "stronger stance".

However, those medically ineligible for Covid-19 vaccines would be granted a concession, and exempted from VDS from Dec. 1, 2021.

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