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Misinformation about health on Facebook was viewed 3.8 billion times in the past year, and peaked during the Covid-19 crisis, a report suggests.
Activist group Avaaz, which carried out the investigation, said Facebook posed a “major threat” to public health.
Doctors added false claims about faxes on the social network could limit the numbers prepared for a Covid jab if one became available.
Facebook said the findings “do not follow the steps we have taken”
In a statement, the company said: “We share Avaaz’s goal of curbing traffic information. Thanks to our worldwide network of fact-checkers, from April to June we applied warning labels to 98 million pieces of Covid-19 traffic information and removed seven million pieces of content that could cause serious damage.
“We have targeted more than two billion people on health authority sources and if anyone tries to share a link about Covid-19, we will show them a pop-up to link them to credible health information.”
Bogus healed
Despite his efforts, Avaaz’s report suggests that only 16% of the health information he identified on Facebook carried a warning label.
The top 10 websites identified by researchers as spreading misinformation about health had nearly four times as many views on Facebook as information from official sites, such as the World Health Organization, according to the report.
A significant amount of incorrect health information was shared from public sites.
And 42 of those sites were followed by more than 28 million people.
The type of highlighted content includes:
- 8.4 million views for an article claiming Bill Gates supports polio vaccination leading to the paralysis of half a million children in India
- 4.5 million views for an article with false cures for deadly diseases, such as colloidal silver for Ebola
- 2.4 million views for an article claiming that quarantine has harmed public health
The investigation looked at accounts from the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy.
Avaaz campaign director Fadi Quran said: “Facebook’s algorithm is a major threat to public health.
“Mark Zuckerberg has promised to provide reliable information during the pandemic.
“But his algorithm sabotages those efforts by spreading many of Facebook’s 2.7 billion users to networks with health misinformation.
“This info-demo will make the pandemic worse unless Facebook detoxifies its algorithm and provides corrections to anyone exposed to these viral lies.”
‘Toxic lies’
Avaaz called on the social network to provide anyone who had seen health information traffic on their platform with independent fact-checked corrections.
It also said it should downgrade misinformation posts in news feeds, in an attempt to reduce their reach.
Prof Frank Ulrich Montgomery, president of the World Medical Association, said: “This pandemic should be a strong reminder of how successful vaccines have been.
“But instead, anti-vaxxers use Facebook to spread toxic lies and conspiracy theories.”
Secretary-General of the European Union of Medical Specialists Dr Joao Miguel Grenho said: “Mark Zuckerberg must take immediate action to join us in stopping this info-demy.
“Otherwise, the number of people poisoned against taking a vaccine will be too high for us to defeat this pandemic.”
Facebook emphasizes that it is fighting dangerous health myths.
And if you put the word “faxes” in the search box, you will be shown reliable information.
But it’s also easy to find thousands of groups and individuals spreading misinformation without apparent Facebook intervention.
One point in the case is a page called Kate Shemirani – who calls herself a natural nurse in A Toxic World and emphasizes her qualifications.
In fact, Ms Shemirani’s nursing record was lifted in July by the Council of Nurses and Midwives, following complaints that she was spreading false information about Covid-19 and about faxes.
‘Thousands killed’
A look at what she posts on Facebook and Twitter reveals persistent attacks on Bill Gates, wearing masks and NHS staff, whom she calls criminals and liars for supplementing the “hoax” that it is coronavirus.
But much of its content is about vaccines – this week they claimed that the polio vaccine had caused polio and thousands of injuries and homicides.
We forwarded this post to both Facebook and Twitter to ask if it broke their rules.
Although Twitter would not provide a public statement, it did state that its rules only covered Covid-19, so this post did not affect.
Facebook said that while it does not prevent people from saying things that are actually wrong, it has done so and made this and similar posts less prominent in people’s news feeds.
