Facebook is a Threat to Public Health? Specialists Warn
A lot of information on Facebook can be a health hazard. Avaaz is presenting a report on the increase in harmful content related to the pandemic and medicine in general.
- The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the so-called fake news and other harmful health-related content on Facebook;
- The report of Avaaz suggests ways to restrict access to misleading content, especially health-related.
Facebook contains health-related content of doubtful value and complying with it may harm our health. This is apparent from a report published by Avaaz (see blue box below for more information). Much of the medical information published by various profiles on the website spreads misinformation and can cause harm. The culmination of such content was in April this year, which is probably related to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the report, in April this year, fake news recorded 460 million views. And throughout the past year, pages with untested health-related information on Facebook had 3.8 billion hits. It is estimated that the misguided content from the ten most popular websites generated four times as much traffic as official information provided by institutions such as the WHO. Among the biggest "disinformators" the report lists websites such as GreenMedInfo and RealFarmacy.
The way Facebook reacts to such content is criticised. According to Avaaz, the measures taken by the administration are insufficient. The website may display a note next to the entry, informing about its harmful content. However, such notes have been pinned to only 16% of entries that are considered to provide incorrect information. Facebook may also classify the website as providing false content, but so far only 42 of were classified as such.
Avaaz's report gives two ways to solve this problem. The first is to improve the recognition metods of such content, so that every user is informed of the fact that false information is displayed. The second is to improve Facebook's algorithms. The improvement would result in a decline in the wall-feed hierarchy of profiles. Entries found to be misleading when it comes to health would cease to be displayed on the website's home page.
I, for my part, will add that the third and most important protection measure is common sense. Facebook's administration will probably never manage to get rid of all harmful content from the website. When using a place where everyone can write what they want, you have to be critical of any information. Especially those concerning health. If you're going to take anything you've found on Facebook at face value, you should check the source carefully. And think, at least twice, about what a post about "5G connection to the coronavirus" or "payment for shipment disinfection" might be.
Avaaz
It is a non-profit organization, gathering activists all over the world. It was founded in 2007 by Ricken Patel, who was previously a consultant for many organizations in regions such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Liberia. The organization's motto is to "change the world for the better". It currently has almost 64 million members. Avaaz has already conducted nearly 2800 campaigns against problems such as global warming, Internet exclusion and corruption. These campaigns most often consist of petitioning and collecting signatures, which are then sent to various institutions. Rarely do they organise protests.
