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DOSSIER – In this March 27, 2019, photo of the case, vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella in a cold room of the Rockland County Health Department in Pomona, New York. Social media is fighting against misinformation. . While measles outbreaks are wreaking havoc around the world, Facebook, Pinterest and others are trying to put the genie back into the bottle, even if they're hesitant, even if they're not willing to take responsibility for the spread of lies. (AP Photo / Seth Wenig, File)
NEW YORK (AP) – Like health officials facing measles outbreaks, internet companies are trying to contain the misinformation about vaccination that they have long helped to spread. Until now, their efforts for quarantine have been in vain.
The Pinterest digital scrapbooking site – which is one of the leading online repositories of vaccine misinformation – has made the seemingly radical decision to block all searches for the term "vaccines", which even affect research legitimate information. This was part of society's application of a broader policy against misinformation in health.
But it's a quarantine that flees. Recently, the search for "measles vaccine" also revealed, among other things, an article entitled "Why we said NO to measles vaccine", as well as an ominous illustration of a hand holding a huge needle titled "Vaccine-nation: poisoning the population, one shot at a time. The research findings for "vaccine safety" and "influenza vaccine" may result in publications containing scientifically proven information.
Meanwhile, Facebook announced in March that it would no longer recommend groups and pages that broadcast hoaxes on vaccines – and that it would reject advertisements doing that. This seems to have filtered some of the most egregious sources of misinformation about vaccines, such as the Naturalnews.com website, which regularly published anti-vaccine propaganda and was very active in Facebook searches on the subject. .
But even after the changes, groups – for example, a group of 197 members and more than 10 positions a day seeking to "discuss the dangers of vaccination" – were among the first results of research on "vaccine safety". A more generic "vaccine" Search, meanwhile, shows the verified profile of Dr. Christiane Northrup, a senior physician who openly expresses her fears about vaccines – and sometimes their opposition to them. On Facebook, hashtags such as "vaccineskill" and reports against child immunization are easy to find thanks to a simple search for "vaccines".
In the battle of social media against misinformation, misrepresentations about the dangers of vaccines are the next target. While some dangerous childhood diseases are making their come back because of lower vaccination rates, Facebook, Pinterest and others are trying to put the genie back in the bottle, while reluctant to acknowledge their responsibility for spreading lies.
"There is some hesitation about vaccines as long as they exist," said Jeanine Guidry, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, who studies social media and vaccines. This sentiment, which dates back to the 1700s, was once reserved for cities and local communities. Online, it goes back well before Facebook and Twitter. A 2002 study of Google's search results found that 43% of the sites published after the search for "vaccination" and "immunization" were anti-vax.
Nevertheless, experts in online disinformation claim that the impact of social networks and their unfiltered diffusion, optimized by algorithms, of the most "interesting" messages – whether they are truthful or not – have fueled a much wider spread of anti-vaccination propaganda. Richard Carpiano, professor of public policy and sociology at the University of California, Riverside, who studies vaccine trends, said that there is a "disproportionate" number of websites on the subject containing misinformation, peddled by "anti-vax activists" and bloggers. Researchers have even discovered that Russia-related robots are trying to sow discord by amplifying both sides of the vaccine debate.
"It's quite understandable that parents are looking for that sort of thing," he said. The problem is that they spend a lot more time online than at the medical office, where they are much more likely to receive accurate information.
The misconception that vaccines are the cause of autism – launched by a now refuted 1998 study – has not started on social media, but it has certainly spread there. Health care officials and experts worry about the echoes generated by the misinformation on social media that has become widespread over the past decade and their role in pushing parents to the brink of hostility in the camp. anti-vax.
Although the headlines of the last two years have largely focused on the false news politics proliferating on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, large bands of people (as well as bots) also share their concerns and their "false research" about perceived dangers. immunization of children.
Mr. Guidry said that social media amplifies these conversations and makes it easier for people with such conversations in echo chambers to reinforce misinformation. His research revealed that Pinterest – popular among women – was particularly susceptible to lies about vaccines. In his 2015 study, nearly 75% of the vaccine "pins" (visual messages on the service) were against vaccination, compared to about a quarter on Twitter (based on another study). Although Pinterest has been strengthening its systems against this type of message since, Guidry notes that things always go through the filters.
Disinformation on Facebook is harder to study because a lot of information is not public, especially when people are posting in secret or secret groups, where a lot of the hoaxes and misrepresentations are prevalent. In such groups, like-minded people come together to share their views and receive support from their peers. Facebook's new policies mean that fewer people will find these groups, but the company will not go so far as to ban them altogether.
Carpiano said that it was difficult to study the real impact of social media on the adoption of the vaccine, but "we are seeing a decrease in coverage and an increase in coverage gaps" as well as the grouping of people reluctant with regard to a vaccine. This, he said, correlates with the rise of many different sources of information that people now have at their fingertips. Despite high-profile epidemics, vaccination rates remain high in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control. But the percentage of children under 2 who have not received any vaccine is increasing.
False news about health and medicine often follows a trajectory similar to that of false news about politics. Some are intended for financial gain, some are intended to wreak havoc in public discourse, others are spread by people who might actually believe it. InfoWars, the conspiracy site run by Alex Jones, regularly insists on the anti-vax agenda and the stories of "forced vaccinations," even as he peddles "Survival Shield" iodine bottles . Natural News, for its part, founded a company on the basis of unproven health claims and sold 29 jars of "organic apple peel powder".
Carpiano pointed out that even though anti-vaccination activists hold wide public attention, the most reluctant parents are simply hesitant or worried about vaccination. Naturally, they seek information – and much of what they find is wrong.
"It's a misinformation campaign," he said. "We are often in the position" oh, we are for choice, understanding, education, "" he said. "But basically, it's not open to scientific debate."
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