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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.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AssCork on Thursday February 14 2019, @08:17PM (10 children)
When I was a kid, I got maybe 10 to 15 vaccines during my childhood. Nowdays, kids are getting a whole lot more.
I'm of the opinion of weighing the risks vs the rewards; Anything that has a high mortality rate? Get the vac.
Gov't Flu vac? I'm young, healthy - skip it (haven't had the flu in 5 yrs, either)
So I'm not sure how much of this is overblown, but bless those silly lil AntiVaxxers - maybe they'll persuade "Big Pharma"(tm) to tone it the fuck down for a bit.
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @08:57PM (3 children)
Most people who say stuff like that haven't seen the raw data: https://xkcd.com/1732/ [xkcd.com]
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 14 2019, @09:17PM (2 children)
I agree that xkcd 1732 is offtopic, but... if you extend the timeline into the rule of the machines, they'll have a very different perspective about what is good and what is bad with respect to global temperatures and pernicious biofouling problems.
As for the Vaccine topic, online forums are places where people communicate, before online forums housewives formed strong opinions while at the beauty shop, or bingo night, or wherever they got together and gossiped.
As for: who can you trust? Simple: no one. Make your best effort then find out where you screwed up later.
As for: herd mentality demands herd immunity - well, duh.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday February 14 2019, @09:34PM (1 child)
We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing those Web Forums up in some way.
(Score: 3, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 14 2019, @09:58PM
Better start with Twitter, very damaging that one... lots of fake news convincing people to do lots of things that are not good.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @09:21PM (2 children)
When yuo were a kid, you played outside, scratched you knees and got stung by bees. In other words, every day you received a microbe and viral dose millions of times greater than 15 vaccines EVERY SINGLE DAY.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:51PM (1 child)
So abolish vaccination and just sent the kids to play outside once a year.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday February 15 2019, @12:36AM
And to practice working with bees, they're very important you know...
If you want to vaccinate people, just genetically modify mosquitoes, ticks, spiders, bees to carry the vaccine for you. It would be like a pollination thing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @12:14AM (2 children)
As a parent this also concerns me. I took maybe like 12 vaccines up until I was 18. I lived through Chicken Pox, Rubella, and all the other staples. It was annoying, but it didn't kill me. And if it had killed few kids, well maybe that's evolution. Vaccinating us against every disease will results in a much weaker herd in few generations.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @12:24AM
Why don't you just avoid all healthcare for you and your kids? Evolution in action.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @12:27AM
The fact that you are a parent concerns me too.