Facebook Inc will no longer show health groups in its recommendations, the social media giant announced on Thursday, saying it was crucial that people get health information from “authoritative sources”.

Over the last year, the company took down more than 1 million groups that violated Facebook’s policies on misinformation and harmful content, it said in a blog post.

Misleading health content has racked up an estimated 3.8 billion views on Facebook over the past year, peaking during the coronavirus pandemic, advocacy group Avaaz said in a report.

Facebook, under pressure to curb such misinformation on its platform, has made amplifying credible health information a key element of its response. It also removes certain false claims about Covid-19 that it determines could cause imminent harm.

The world’s largest social network also said it would bar administrators and moderators of groups that have been taken down for policy violations from creating any new groups for a period of time.

Facebook said in the blog post that it also now limits the spread of groups tied to violence by removing them from its recommendations and searches, and soon, by reducing their content in its news feed.