Tide pod eating and anti-vaccination movements, two ridiculous ideas that have become a more popular trend in the past few years. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you which one I think is worse, they are both ludicrous. I dream of a day when everyone is vaccinated and we no longer have to worry about an outbreak of polio in the United States, a disease that was close to eradication. The good news is, Facebook, and a few other social media sources, are trying to cut down on the misinformation that is produced on their platforms and make it harder for this ridiculousness to be passed around. Several news sources, including CNN, have been looking into the measures Facebook is taking in order to reduce the spread of this anti-vaccination propaganda. Let’s see if these are actually beneficial, shall we?
CNN’s article, by Susan Scutti, explains what Facebook, as well as Instagram, is attempting to do in the stop of misinformation, which was obtained from Monika Bickert, the VP of global policy management for Facebook (she’s basically the real deal). The article explains that Facebook will lower the ranking of anti-vax groups, as well as remove them from recommended pages to like and view. Additionally, if pages containing anti-vaccine information request to submit an ad, they will be declined, or possibly disabled. A downside from this is that individual accounts will not be disabled and can still spread as much misinformation as they deem necessary. A more recent CNN article, by Jacqueline Howard, explains a further measure Facebook is taking. Rather than just stopping the misinformation, they will also endorse scientific education about vaccines. They will do this by adding popup windows to CDC articles about vaccines, when anything vaccine related is searched or clicked on. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me. You wanna search for groups encouraging the stop of measles vaccination? NOPE!! Here’s an article about why the measles vaccine is a GOOD thing, for more than just your own kid.
So how do anti-vaxxers get their information? Is it really from Facebook and social media outlets? Will this change in algorithm really help the abolishment of these anti-vaxx groups? According to an article by Suraj Patel, in Quartz, the answer is ABSOLUTELY! These ideas started with the retracted Lancet article that discussed an unreliable and unethical study on vaccines and its link with autism. Though these ideas have been debunked over and over again by highly respected scientists, we STILL have an issue with misinformation floating around the US. Patel’s article talks about an 18-year-old, Ethan Lindenberger, who had to figure out a way to vaccines on his own when he became a legal adult because his parents were anti-vaxxers. This young man, who grew up in the center of anti-vaxx culture explained how important Facebook is to his mother, and that it is the sole place she gets her information. So yea, yes indeed, social media is a big influencer in the anti-vaxx movement.
I am one of many guilty people that believes anything I see on Facebook, a flaw I try to work on every day. Some Facebook articles are great, they give information one may have not known anything about if it did not show up on their timeline. However, with anything on the internet, it should be taken with a grain of salt. From the articles discussed previously, Facebook is a very important outlet for vaccine information, and especially important in the anti-vaxx community. I do think Facebook’s efforts will help with this issue some, however not entirely. We all know how quickly random people’s posts go viral, so this could pose an issue with the continuation of anti-vaxx information being spread. Since individual posts will not be monitored, only pages and groups, this information can still get around. Also, people in general like to be proven right. Therefore, I believe people will still seek to find the information that backs up their personal beliefs, whether that be through google or another social media outlet that is not Facebook owned. Therefore, I do think Facebook’s crackdown is a step in the right direction, but I think all social media sites and news outlets should work together to remove this information to the wide world web.
Vaccinate yourselves (and your children), people!
Laura's Food For Thought 