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How the Fight Over Vaccines is Fueled by Web Forums

posted by mrpg on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the stop-using-it-already dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for chromas

How the fight over vaccines is fueled by web forums

[...] But as Wang notes, groups have been just as vulnerable to hate speech, misinformation, and other woes that plague the News Feed. In the Guardian, Ed Pilkington and Jessica Glenza explore that downside, focusing on how anti-vaccination ghouls take advantage of Facebook’s viral distribution to spread propaganda:

Facebook is increasingly engaged in combatting misinformation that causes “real-world harm”. Yet despite the health risks, anti-vaccination propaganda is currently not treated as a breach of its content rules.

The Guardian asked Facebook to respond to the proliferation of vaccine misinformation on its platform, but the company did not reply.

In a Twitter thread, misinformation researcher Renee DiResta blames the groups’ rise on Facebook’s recommendation algorithm. “The FB recommendation engine actively pushes the larger ones like Stop Mandatory Vaccination at new parents,” she writes. “If you’re in a mom group, you’ll get antivax group recs.” She went on: “This is where the platform has real power to change. Take them out of the [recommendation] engine. YouTube recognizes that proactively pushing conspiracy theories is harmful; Facebook has the same problem but still does it.”

Until that happens, some children of anti-vaccination parents are taking matter into their own hands. Emily Moon reports that some nervous but resourceful young people are seeking advice ... from Reddit forums.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:45PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:45PM (#801157)

    They want to get you addicted to their vaccines and misdirect the blame to others when they don't work.

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  • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:18PM (1 child)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:18PM (#801276)

    How exactly do you get "addicted" to vaccines? 1 per disease, some with a booster shot, but after that you're good to go for 40-50 years.

    Not like you're scoring MMR in the back alleys of medicine to get your daily fix.

    --
    When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:45PM (#801284)

      It is addiction at the population level. They (accidentally I think in the case of measles) pulled a bait and switch. First promising to "eradicate" measles by 1967:

      If properly developed and wisely used, it should be possible to disrupt the biological balance of measles. Its eradication from large continental land masses such as North America and many other parts of the world can be anticipated soon.

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1522578/ [nih.gov]

      With the isolation of the measles virus and the development and extensive field testing of several potent and effective vaccines, the tools are at hand to eradicate the infection. With the general applica¬ tion of these tools during the coming months, eradication can be achieved in this country in the year 1967.

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1919891/ [nih.gov]

      Then realizing by 1968 the consequences of their actions. Instead people will need to buy measles vaccines forever or else suffer a huge epidemic:

      Campaigns such as the one described have altered the epidemiology of measles. No longer will the disease contribute as much to maintaining herd immunity. The prevention of measles epidemics will now require constant maintenance immunization programs.

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1228954/ [nih.gov]