By Elizabeth Culliford

(Reuters) – Facebook Inc will start banning ads that explicitly discourage people from getting vaccinated, the world’s largest social media company said on Tuesday, as it also announced a new flu vaccine information campaign.

Ads advocating for or against legislation or government policies around vaccines, including a COVID-19 vaccine, will still be allowed, the company said in a blog post. It will begin to enforce the new global policy in the next few days.

Facebook, with 2.7 billion monthly active users, has been under pressure from lawmakers and public health groups to crack down on anti-vaccine content and misinformation on its platform. The company said that although a COVID-19 vaccine would not be available for some time, the pandemic had highlighted the importance of preventative health behaviors.

Facebook’s previous rules prohibited ads containing vaccine misinformation or hoaxes identified by leading health organizations, but allowed ads opposing vaccines