And the report found that 10 “superspreaders” of misinformation about health posted four times as many views as the top 10 leading global health agencies that same month, even as Facebook took new steps to show users information from authoritative health sources. Because Facebook reveals the number of interactions, but not views for certain types of messages, Avaaz extrapolated estimated views by multiplying the number of interaction posts received.
The full report, which covers a year of messages ending in late May, also raises the question of how effective Facebook has been at alerting users when they see fake health news. Avaaz found that only 16 percent of the content that identified it as incorrect health information was flagged as such by Facebook, with the remainder remaining online without warning.
Azaav, which lobbies about issues ranging from climate change to human rights, has released several studies focusing on Facebook’s handling of misinformation.
‘Completely memorable and dangerous’: Democratic lawmakers gave prior access to the report in Facebook, citing further evidence that the company is not doing enough to stop the spread of misinformation about health.
“The fact that this misinformation has been viewed nearly four billion times on Facebook over the past year is completely unforgettable and dangerous,” Rep said. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Chair of the House Energy and Sales Subcommittee, in a statement.
She added, “These findings underscore the fundamental flaw in Facebook’s business model: it values lies about life.”
First Chamber Member Mark Warner (D-Va.), A top tech policy winner on Capitol Hill, expressed concern that viral misinformation was spreading in private Facebook groups as the company pushed to make it more prominent on the platform. .
“We continue to see Facebook groups and pages that serve as key factors in harmful activity – including medical traffic information and health scams – even as Facebook continues to activate group activity in users’ feeds and promote group membership to users, he said.
Facebook’s response: “We share Avaaz’s goal of correcting misinformation, but its findings do not reflect the steps we have taken to disseminate it on our services,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement prior to the release of the report.
Stone added that the platform “targeted more than 2 billion people on health authority resources” and “applied warning labels to 98 million pieces of COVID-19 misinformation.”
What follows: Avaaz calls on Facebook to show corrections of independent fact-checks to all users who have seen health information on the platform, which the group said could significantly reduce their belief in these falsifications. And Avaaz is urging the company to adjust its algorithms to include posts that contain false health news.
In her statement, Eshoo said she supported those recommendations.
