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Facebook and YouTube say that they are acting to reduce the spread of misleading claims about health care after a media report showed the proliferation of fictitious cancer treatments on social media.
Facebook said it had changed its page ranking algorithm to reduce "publications with exaggerated or sensational health claims" and tried to sell products based on these claims. YouTube said separately that it was taking similar action.
False medical claims
the the Wall Street newspaper published a report based on its own survey showing the prevalence on Facebook and YouTube of false allegations such as the use of baking soda injections to cure cancer.
The report states that Facebook and YouTube, owned by Google, have submitted their plans to curb the spread of such false claims for medical expenses after being informed of the results of the investigation.
Facebook said it made changes last month as part of efforts to reduce the spread of misleading medical claims, particularly from groups opposed to the use of recommended vaccines.
"In order to help people get accurate health information and the support they need, it's imperative to minimize sensational or misleading sanitary content," said Travis Yeh, Facebook product manager, in a blog post .
"We treated this issue in the same way we had previously used to reduce poor quality content like clickbait: by identifying commonly used phrases in these publications to predict which ones might include sensational health claims or promoting products containing health claims, and then lower them in the news feeds. "
Reduce the spread of misinformation
The journal, based on interviews with doctors, lawyers, privacy experts and others, uncovered many false or misleading claims about online cancer treatments.
These included videos advocating the use of ointment killing cells that could be dangerous, unverified diets or uncommitted screening techniques.
YouTube said that he had been working for some time at reducing the misinformation on the platform.
"Misinformation is a difficult challenge, and misinformation about medical topics is particularly worrying," a YouTube spokesperson said in an email.
"We have taken a number of steps to address this issue, including making more authoritative content available to people searching for topics related to cancer treatment on our site, beginning to reduce the recommendations of some of our videos. Disinformation Medical and by posting information boards containing more sources where they can find out more … check the information for themselves. "
Image credit: iStock
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