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Despite Promises, Facebook's Instagram Is Still Spreading Anti-Vaccine Disinformation (huffpost.com) 77

Posted by EditorDavid from the spreading-like-a-virus dept.
"It's been almost a year since Instagram pledged to reduce the spread of vaccine-related misinformation on its platform. But today, it continues to do the exact opposite," reports the Huffington Post: When HuffPost created a new Instagram account and searched for the term "vaccines" on Saturday, almost all of the top results were anti-vax pages... At the very top was a profile with more than 74,000 followers and posts pushing blatant falsehoods about vaccines and the Wuhan coronavirus. As soon as HuffPost followed that account, Instagram recommended dozens more that, just like it, were promoting dangerous medical misinformation amid a global health emergency.

With its 1 billion users, the role that Facebook-owned Instagram plays in shaping public discourse is not easily understated.
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Despite Promises, Facebook's Instagram Is Still Spreading Anti-Vaccine Disinformation More

Despite Promises, Facebook's Instagram Is Still Spreading Anti-Vaccine Disinformation

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  • No (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02, 2020 @06:55PM (#59682762)

    Facebook/Instagram aren't spreading anything. It's the anti-vax users that are spreading the misinformation. Instagram doesn't exercise editorial control over free speech. Critical thinking is the responsibility of the readers. If it's Huffington Post's position that the public doesn't have the facilities to make up their own minds and act upon that, then they should just come out and say it. And maybe we shouldn't have the responsibility of voting either.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Dusanyu ( 675778 )
      they can say that all they want they have been exercising editorial control over free speech for years they gave up that right they started knowtowing to the cancle-culture and started de-platforming people

    • Critical thinking is the responsibility of the readers.

      Strong words in a country that's worked tirelessly to ban nudity, sex education, subsidized contraception, abortion and prostitution. Why is prostitution bad but alcohol and cannabis are acceptable? Humans have been mixing sex and drugs for thousands of years. This is only changing which part of reality, US leaders tolerate. Critical thinking is difficult because all societies use sentiment (and religion) to hide the shallow or selfish needs of people.

      ... Huffington Post's position ...

      Their position is, someone should be responsible for

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

      I agree but good grief I miss the days of editorial control. I hardly come to slashdot anymore because of all the politics and the crazies. I am not a fan of even allowing ACs to post. The arguments about pro-democracy protesters and whistleblowers on Slashdot just do not hold a lot of water since I have never seen one or the other on Slashdot unless you count the GW is satan or Obama is going to look up patriots in old Walmarts as whistleblowing. I just count them as jerks.
      Where Instagram and Facebook may

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Instagram is publishing it on their platform and distributing it to the world. They provide free bandwidth and promotion via their recommendation and social network features.

      If Instagram banned them would their message spread as easily and as far? The answer is no, it would be a loss for them, therefore Instagram has some responsibility for aiding them.

    • From the summary:

      As soon as HuffPost followed that account, Instagram recommended dozens more that, just like it, were promoting dangerous medical misinformation amid a global health emergency.

      What people post on Instagram is their own choice. What Instagram recommends to you is Instagram's choice. They're responsible for what they recommend, whether it's chosen by a human or an algorithm.

    • It actually saddens me to admit that yes, the public is not capable of making an informed decision. Mostly because in our education, there has never been any kind of room for teaching kids how to tell bullshit from reality and how to notice when they're being lied to for profit.

      Personally, I blame religion. They sure got the most to lose if people could actually do that.

      • Nonsense. Russia used to teach how Capitalism is bullshit. The US teaches that Socialism is bullshit. Your education will only reinforce your officially sanctioned variety of bullshit.

        And "opportunist" is bang on in blaming religion.

  • There is NO vaccine for Wuhan coronavirus. And coronavirus is difficult to produce vaccines for.

    So talking about these two together is just insane.

    • There is NO vaccine for Wuhan coronavirus. And coronavirus is difficult to produce vaccines for.
      So talking about these two together is just insane.

      It's not that difficult, lots of places are already developing them. Just animal/human testing is time consuming. As always you are just wrong.
      When the vaccines are ready, will the anti-vaxxers take them? How much worse will the spread be when they don't?
      Remembering anti-vaxxers are American and not Chinese.

      • Just like your government, you lie so often that you cause MORE FUCKING Damage than you will ever help anybody. [healthline.com]

        Drugmaker Johnson and Johnson, which is not funded by CEPI, started working on a vaccine two weeks ago, according to CNBC. The company’s chief scientific officer estimates they could have a vaccine ready for market within a year.

        Hotez said there are some things you can do to make this testing go a little faster, like running some of the clinical trials in parallel. “But in the end, you’re still talking weeks to months,” he said.

        Perlman said different types of coronaviruses share some of the same features, so a universal vaccine could theoretically be developed. But “we know from efforts to develop HIV or influenza vaccines, that this is not easy,” he said.

        Like always, you are not only clueless, but always a liar.

    • You know, I know, but try to get an Anti-Vaxxer to understand that. Good luck.

  • Waiting for new list of words, links, comments, users...
    It starts with vaccine-related information that people want to read, share, link and look at in their own time.
    Whats next? German history?
    Spanish news?
    EU gov news?
    The reality of the demands of a Communist gov health care system vs coronavirus video uploads?
    People like to read, link, share such information. Thats their free time, hours to spend on "social media" on topics they like....
    vaccine-related information, past German history, the resul

    • Bizarre response.

      Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have no free speech component built into them. They permit whatever speech they permit. In this case, for whatever reason, Instagram continues to promote a specific viewpoint. They promised to stop directly or indirectly promoting anti-vaxx viewpoints. They have apparently failed.

      Anti-vaxx propaganda continues to be pushed to the forefront on Instagram. Why? Huffpost doesn't supply any good answers, nor will anyone else.

      The important takeaways h

      • Bizarre response.

        Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have no free speech component built into them.

        Nothing bizarre about this response. He's advocating an open platform for discussion, including viewpoints you don't approve of. Whether or not Facebook is legally obligated to provide such a platform is irrelevant.

        • Facebook has never been a free speech platform. Ditto for Instagram. Both are rife with censorship. Why is anyone expecting them to function in such a capacity now?

          • Facebook has never been a free speech platform. Ditto for Instagram. Both are rife with censorship. Why is anyone expecting them to function in such a capacity now?

            Just because something has always been a certain way is no reason not to be of the opinion that it should be different. That's how change happens - enough people, or maybe just the right people, take a stand against the status quo. It is far from a bizarre thing to do.

            • How about, instead of changing it, we abandon it? I don't want my "free speech" to be dependent on some unaccountable corporate spies that occasionally throw me a bone to make me feel like my First Amendment rights are being respected (when Facebook has no obligation to respect them in the first place).

              Facebook and Instagram can both die.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        Re "free speech component" depends on the telco laws in the USA?
        That depends on been a telco, a publisher, the role of the user after "publication".
        Is the user the publisher of their own comments?
        1. Social media is a fully protected telco just passing on communication.
        ie free speech platform for users.

        2. A social media brand is now the full owner and publisher of all users comments... reading and censoring content as a publisher.
        A platform with all the risk of been a publisher for every co

        • Sadly, Facebook (and Instagram) are neither publishers nor telecommunication companies, so you can't apply such logic to them. If you don't like them, I'd heartily suggest you

          a). stop using them and
          b). try to get as many other people to stop using them as you can

          In the end, we'll be better off without Facebook, Twitter, and a whole host of similar social media platforms.

    • >Whats next? German history?
      Well that already happens, for example if you say something amazingly false and insulting such as "the holocaust didn't happen", you will get removed from search engines and most social media platforms.

      Sometimes the world just gets sick of how fast idiots can spread lies.

  • Facebook/Twitter acting as the medium for false information.

    I am shocked. (not really but you get the drift)

    Just what would you expect from these social disinformation platforms.

  • Polio get the shot before the oral. Philippine dengue-VAX killed many children. Immunize the homeless and travelers. Travelers spread disease world wide. Homeless defecate in the streets of California.

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