I read both the NPR article, Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes on Social Media, Research Shows, and the Washington Post article, Facebook and Twitter must do more to fight anti-vaccine misinformation, a dozen state attorneys general demand.
The disinformation dozen produce 65% of shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media
The figures are well known and “have been spreading scientifically disproven medical claims and conspiracies for years.” It leads to a second question of why has it taken so long for the social media sites that they post their misinformation on to shut it down? Its great that facebook spokesperson Kevin McAlister says they’ve “removed more than 16 million pieces of content which violate their policies” but its terrible but that content is allowed to be posted and viewed in the first place. Who knows how quickly they are actually able to hold misinformation.
I then read the Washington Post article, where it explains how attorney generals pressed Facebook and Twitter to hold users more accountable in terms of encouraging an anti-vax agenda. Obviously in the age of COVID-19, correct information on the pandemic and protecting against its spread with vaccination was an extremely important topic that both the government and health experts needed to speak too the masses. The misinformation surrounding the covid vaccines is detrimental to stopping the spread of the disease, and social medias holding anti-vaxxers accountable is the only way to stop their spread as well. The Post article really only explained that Facebook and Twitter could be doing more than they are currently, and both platforms obviously said they were committed to stopping the spread of misinformation, whether as a public relations move or because its what they really believe.
It is extremely frustrating that Facebook/Twitter does not do more to limit the platforms of these people, especially knowing that they have the full power to do so. In this class, we have seen that these social media platforms have access to endless data and the power to manipulate this data as they please. So, how come they do not step in sooner to stop these accounts from spreading this misinformation? Call me a conspiracist, but I genuinely believe that they let it happen so it will bring more foot traffic to their platforms. It seems like from the past, the craziest most extremist people are the ones who spend the most time on social media. So, it would make sense that they would allow these people to continue using their platforms.
This is a really difficult topic, and it’s one that I’m sure many of us have discussed in class before. I know in one of my past communication classes, we talked for quite a while on censorship in regards to both harassment and just straight up false information. I think that there should be punishment for “fake” news, especially since it is a term used so commonly today. It is so easy to disseminate fake news and very quickly. Since there are no laws or frankly any guidelines that prevents people from doing this, what would make them stop? There are slander consequences for fake news about people, so there should be consequences for blatantly fake facts that would hurt people if they listened.
It’s scary to think that just a few people are able to have such a prominent voice on social media, and how this unverified “voice” can impact real people’s actions. On social media, it feels as though everyone is on a somewhat even playing field. Of course, celebrities ultimately have more followers than the average person, and probably have more reach. Even so, any user has the same ability to post a Tweet or Facebook post of pretty much whatever they want. That being said, the spread of misinformation is nearly inevitable. I am curious what these social media platforms can do to limit the spread of fake news. Sure, a sort of technological algorithm to identify misinformation would probably be the fastest/most effective. Even so, technology isn’t always able to catch what humans are.