Misleading health information on Facebook reaches billions of people and is setting off alarm bells, according to a new report.
The nonprofit group Avaaz released a report Wednesday that claimed Facebook groups and pages with questionable health news garnered around 3.8 billion views on the platform during the 12-month period that ended in May.
The report found that websites containing misleading and false health information attracted 460 million views on Facebook in April alone, during the height of coronavirus-related shutdowns worldwide.
What's more, the report highlighted 10 what it calls "superspreaders" for being the worst offenders in terms of posting and sharing misleading health information. Combined, those 10 accounts had nearly four times as many estimated views on Facebook than the 10 leading international health organizations — a list that includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
Other findings included:
- Facebook accounts for 43% of the total estimated views garnered by websites found to spread misleading health information.
- 42 Facebook pages are "key drivers of engagement" for websites spreading misleading health information. More than 28 million people follow the Facebook pages of those sites, and they have attracted roughly 800 million views on Facebook.
- Facebook fell short of finding and flagging 84% of the health misinformation contained in the Avaaz report.
Examples of misleading health content discovered on Facebook included:
- A story claiming that a polio vaccine program backed by Bill Gates paralyzed nearly half a million children in India. It resulted in roughly 4.7 million views.
- A story claiming that the American Medical Association was pushing for doctors and hospitals in the U.S. to inflate the number of COVID-19 deaths. It garnered roughly 160.5 million views, the highest number in Avaaz's investigation.
- A story that said the use of colloidal silver to treat syphilis, tuberculosis, or ebola is a safe alternative to using antibiotics. It gained 4.5 million views.
The report goes on to name some of the websites and Facebook pages that were found to spread misleading health information.
Two Democrats reacted to the report with concern in a Politico story.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.:
"We continue to see Facebook groups and pages serving as major vectors for harmful activity — including medical misinformation and health scams — even as Facebook has continued to prioritize group activity in users' feeds and promote group membership to users."
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.:
"The fact that this misinformation has been viewed nearly four billion times on Facebook in the last year is utterly inexcusable and dangerous. These findings underscore the fundamental flaw in Facebook's business model: it values lies over lives."
Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told Politico that the social media network is committed to rooting out disinformation.
"We share Avaaz's goal of limiting misinformation, but their findings don't reflect the steps we've taken to keep it from spreading on our services," Stone said.
Facebook, Stone added, has "directed over 2 billion people to resources from health authorities" and "applied warning labels to 98 million pieces of COVID-19 misinformation."
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