Don’t Believe Everything You See Online
“Eating instant noodles can kill you!” Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is headlines like this and many others that are catching the attention of the masses as they browse news on social media platforms. With the increasing accessibility and incorporation of social media in our daily lives it comes as no surprise that for many people it is often their primary source of news from around the world. This power held by social media is in fact a double-edged sword. Spreading of information at such a rapid pace can be very helpful to quickly spread the word but this becomes a major issue when users spread false information both intentionally (disinformation) and unintentionally (misinformation)(SI4101). This is especially concerning when dealing with misinformation related to health. Whether you are on WhatsApp, TikTok, or Facebook it is quite common to run across a post offering nontraditional remedies, preaching of government conspiracies, or promoting unproven beliefs. While you may be tempted to believe and even forward these messages, you should always do your own research first. There is no guarantee that the posts are accurate and have any credibility, one of the core problems in the spread of health misinformation on social media platforms. In order to improve the user experience and create a safe, accurate space online, social media platforms need to do more to stop the spread of misinformation in health because it poses a serious threat to public health. Let’s take a look at what the biggest names in social media are doing to combat misinformation in health.
One of the biggest platforms on social media, WhatsApp has created a name for itself as a messaging platform. With billions of active users, the reach of WhatsApp is far and wide around the world. All of this just makes the problem of misinformation in health on WhatsApp a bigger deal. The problem has gotten so bad it has writers like Davies on ABC news comparing the spread of misinformation to the spread of the novel coronavirus. In Nigeria, after the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed, within a matter of hours there were false claims spreading on WhatsApp, claiming popular locations such as hotels and schools were contaminated. Spreading of such messages can falsely inflict panic into the general public which can cause mental distress for vulnerable individuals and lead to other more damaging problems. In Brazil, a similar situation was seen with the Yellow Fever vaccine. Yellow Fever is normally only found within the Amazon’s basin but recently it has broken this barrier and it is spreading across communities and heading towards major cities. Health officials across Brazil have been urging people to get vaccinated but WhatsApp has been a major obstacle. Misguided information began surfacing on the platform warning of deaths related to the Yellow Fever vaccine causing many people to avoid the vaccine. This became a major public health crisis because the false claims were enough to scare people away from a life-saving vaccine and put the public in danger of a Yellow Fever outbreak. One of the main reasons that false information spreads so quickly on social media as explained by Claire Wardle is the “Atom system.” Social networks allow atoms of propaganda to be directly targeted towards users that are likely to be the most susceptible to the information. These users are more likely to believe the disinformation and forward the false message which is now misinformation. The next person to receive the message is more likely to believe it now since they got it from a trusted friend or family member and the spread of misinformation becomes rampant. The atoms take advantage of susceptible users and peer networks to spread false information. This has become a real issue on WhatsApp because the platform uses end-to-end encryption which makes it so that the company can only see who interacts with who and how often, but not the actual messages themselves. Not being able to track specific messages makes it impossible to trace misinformation back to the source. Fighting their demons, WhatsApp is taking multiple approaches to limit the spread of misinformation. They recently rolled out a “search the web” function for messages that were flagged as frequently forwarded which allowed users to directly search for messages on the internet to see if they were true or had any credibility. WhatsApp is also trying to partner with fact-checking organizations to crack down on the spread of misinformation and recently they applied new restrictions to how frequently a message could be forwarded. While these measures help reduce the spread of misinformation, WhatsApp must continue to develop new features to counter health misinformation before public health takes a fatal blow it cannot recover from.
TikTok
Another hot platform that is rapidly growing and has especially gained traction over the past couple of years is TikTok. TikTok has battled many trivial issues in the past and the spread of health misinformation on the platform should be one of their top priorities moving forward. Every month, TikTok has the power to reach an insane magnitude of a billion users, which can be quite dangerous when false information is involved. The problem has gotten so out of hand it has many physicians taking time out of their days to create their own content to fight back against users who spread disinformation. It has deteriorated to the point where some physicians have publicly stated that debunking misinformation online feels like a second job. This should be very concerning for everyone! Anyone who has been paying attention to the news over the pandemic knows how overwhelmed and understaffed the healthcare community has been and piling on more work is only making the situation worse. Some of the popular health topics that are seen on the platform usually relate to losing weight, working out, COVID-19, or home remedies to prevent illnesses such as cancer. The issue of misinformation is exemplified by a skincare post that gained a lot of attention called the liquid chlorophyll miracle drink. This magical potion was believed to help viewers lose weight, prevent cancer, reduce acne, and boost their energy. Dietitians, nutritionists, and other experts who have looked into liquid chlorophyll treatment have said that none of these claims are actually backed up scientifically by enough evidence. However, the millions of users who likely came across this post may have believed the information and even potentially spread it to others. While chlorophyll may not be dangerous and can be found in many veggies, other remedies that are shared on the platform do pose the potential to cause severe harm. Thankfully, TikTok has not completely turned the other way and ignored the spread of misinformation on their platform. New community guidelines state that unverified content will have visible labels to signal to viewers that the information has not been proven credible and content creators will be cautioned before they post potentially misleading information on their accounts. TikTok also partners with external companies such as PolitiFact and Lead Stories to fact check content and even go as far as to remove posts that have been proven false. While this is a step in the right direction, there is still a long way to go as even now misinformation circulates and misleads users on their platform. Health is a very delicate topic that can have serious repercussions if taken lightly and for these reasons minimizing health misinformation should be one of the most important tasks for TikTok as their platform continues to grow and moves forward.
As one of the oldest social networking platforms on the Internet, Facebook has had its share of mishaps and issues. With billions of active users each month Facebook, just like TikTok and WhatsApp, possesses a very influential position in our society. Facebook has been dealing with misinformation, especially health misinformation, on their platform for a long time and it is a problem that seems to keep getting worse. One of the reasons that misinformation flourishes is that Facebook allows people to create groups which can create targets for those wanting to spread disinformation. A prime example of this is the anti-vaccine activism that is prevalent on the platform. There are many out there who claim, with little to no scientific evidence, that vaccines will kill children or cause them to have autism. Anti-vaccine activists who want to spread their message in hopes of gaining more support seek out vulnerable users by finding public groups for new parents or parents who suffered the loss of an infant. This is a real danger to public health because it is potentially convincing parents not to immunize their children which hinders herd immunity and potentially puts other children and their families in harm’s way. Another post that went viral on the platform was a short trailer movie called Plandemic which misquoted physicians and cited conspiracy theorists to claim that COVID-19 was planned, vaccines are harmful, and that masks actually worked to activate the virus. The trailer capitalized on the fear and mistrust the pandemic had created to question and discredit medical professionals. This became a legitimate public health concern as Plandemic was able to raise support against the vaccine and mask mandates which were meant to protect people. Facebook is taking a three-pronged approach in their attempt to halt the spread of false news on their platform. The first piece is to disrupt the financial motivations behind the false news. Many sources of misinformation usually make money by getting users to come visit them on their websites which are filled with ads. To disrupt this, Facebook has partnered with external fact-checking companies to better identify false news and they are trying to make it as difficult as they can for spreaders of false news to purchase ads on the platform. The second prong of the attack is adding features to the platform that can detect misinformation based on how viewers interact with a post and also making it easier for users to self-report misinformation when they see it. The third and final prong is helping users make informed decisions so they can stop the spread of misinformation themselves. They are hoping to achieve this feat through two programs (the Facebook Journalism Project and the News Integrity Initiative) which both partner with credible external sources to provide users with the tools and guidance that can assist them in making more informed decisions. It is encouraging to see Facebook not completely brushing the issue under the rug, but it is not enough. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done and I hope the platform is not satisfied until they have truly reduced the spread of misinformation to as close to zero as possible.
Moving Forward
As these platforms continue to evolve and grow, stopping the spread of health misinformation should continue to be one of their top priorities. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown not only how delicate our society is but also the impact of social media, especially health misinformation, on public health. Misinformation in the realm of health can have serious consequences from starting a viral outbreak to fatal home remedies. Facebook seems to have one of the better strategies for fighting misinformation and other platforms should follow their example. There are many different motivations for spreading disinformation as listed by Claire Wardle in her article and platforms should target these motivations (similar to how Facebook targets financial motivations) to stop disinformation at the source. Understanding the deep-rooted motivation behind disinformation can help these platforms figure out what group is being targeted and what makes them vulnerable. This gives the social media platforms a chance to get ahead of the health misinformation and warn these users before such information reaches them. It is assuring to see improvements across the platforms over the course of the last several years, especially during the pandemic, and for the sake of public health these efforts need to continue because the double-edged sword of social media does not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
