Facebook study finds overlap between vaccine hesitancy and QAnon

Early findings from an internal Facebook study into doubts about the coronavirus vaccine would include an overlap between users expressing skepticism about vaccines and accounts affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Facebook’s internal research is examining posts that fall outside of its ban on vaccine misinformation, but are more in a gray area, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing study documents.

As part of the research, Facebook data scientists divided U.S. users, groups and pages into 638 population segments to examine hesitant vaccine beliefs, the Post reported.

Early evidence from inside findings points to an overlap between vaccine-skeptical communities and those affiliated with the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, according to the Post.

Facebook pledged to ban all conspiracy theory affiliated accounts in October.

Users, however, are continually forming new groups, accounts and QAnon Pages using conflicting tactics that attempt to hide their conspiracy theory affiliation, according to Facebook. When Facebook identifies the pages, they are deleted, the company says.

Early results from the internal study also suggest that most of the vaccine-hesitant content comes from a relatively small subset of users.

The internal study found that only 10 of 638 segments of the population contained half of all vaccine reluctance on the platform, and in the segment of the population with the most vaccine reluctance, only 111 users contributed to half of that hesitation, according to the Post.

The document viewed by the Post did not identify how Facebook defined a segment or grouped community, but noted that segments could be at least 3 million people.

Facebook says it’s standard for it to study the types of content on its platforms to understand trends and identify emerging issues to determine what action to take against potentially harmful content.

The reported study is just one of the ways Facebook has taken action to tackle misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine as authorities increasingly monitor the handling of these false claims.

“Since the start of the pandemic, we have partnered with more than 60 global health experts and studied COVID-19 related content, including vaccines and misinformation, to inform our policies,” the door said. -Facebook Dani Lever said in a statement.

Facebook “regularly” studies issues such as COVID-19, voting, bias and hate speech to “understand emerging trends to understand emerging trends so that we can build, refine and measure our products,” said Get up.

“Public health experts have made it clear that tackling vaccine hesitancy is a top priority in the COVID response, which is why we have launched a global campaign that has already connected 2 billion people to reliable information experts and eliminates false claims about COVID. and vaccines. This ongoing work will help inform our efforts, ”Lever added.

In February, Facebook said it would remove all denied claims about the coronavirus vaccine during the pandemic, and on Monday the company said it had removed 2 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram.

In a blog post on Monday, Facebook also said it would step up efforts to tackle misinformation about coronavirus vaccines by adding labels to all articles dealing with vaccines.

Facebook said it would first add labels containing World Health Organization information to vaccine safety posts and, in the coming weeks, roll out labels for more general posts on vaccine safety. vaccines that will direct users to information about them.

Facebook’s push to update its policy comes after President BidenJoe Biden The Hill’s Morning Report – Brought to you by Facebook – Biden hits the road, all COVID-19 relief law Oregon senator takes center stage in Democratic filibuster debate This week: Democrats are considering the next step after the victory of the coronavirus relief bill PLUSlast week’s speech stating that all American adults will be eligible for the vaccine by May 1.

Meanwhile, polls have indicated that there will be challenges associated with vaccine reluctance – especially among certain populations.

A PBS NewsHour / NPR / Marist poll released last week found that nearly 30% of Americans overall said they did not plan to get the vaccine. Among men who identify as Republicans, the same poll found that nearly half said they had no plans to get the coronavirus vaccine.