The first findings from an internal Facebook study of questions about the coronavirus vaccine include an overlap between users who express skepticism about vaccines and accounts affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Facebook’s internal survey is looking at posts that do not fall under its ban on misinformation about vaccines, but fall into a gray area, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing study documents.
As part of the research, Facebook data scientists divided users, groups and pages from the United States into 638 segments of the population to observe tentative beliefs about vaccines, the Post reported.
The first evidence of the internal findings points to an overlap between communities that are skeptical of vaccines and those affiliated with the unsound conspiracy theory QAnon, according to the Post.
Facebook promised to ban all accounts affiliated with the conspiracy theory in October.
Users, however, continually form new QAnon groups, accounts and pages using opposing tactics that try to hide their affiliation with conspiracy theory, according to Facebook. As Facebook identifies the pages, they are removed, says the company.
The first findings of the internal study also suggest that most of the vaccine’s hesitant content comes from a relatively small subset of users.
The internal study found that only 10 of the 638 segments of the population contained half of all vaccine hesitation on the platform, and in the population segment with the highest vaccine hesitation, only 111 users contributed to half of that hesitation, according to the Post.
The document seen by the Post did not identify how Facebook defined a segment or grouped community, but noted that the segments can be at least 3 million people.
Facebook says it is standard to study the types of content on its platforms to understand trends and identify emerging issues to determine actions against potentially harmful content.
The reported study is just one of the ways in which Facebook has been taking steps to combat misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine amid growing scrutiny by authorities over the treatment of such false claims.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have partnered with more than 60 global health experts and studied content related to COVID-19, including vaccines and disinformation, to inform our policies,” said Facebook spokesman Dani Lever in a statement.
Facebook “routinely” studies issues like COVID-19, voting, prejudice and hate speech to “understand emerging trends to understand emerging trends so that we can build, refine and measure our products,” said Lever.
“Public health experts have made it clear that combating vaccine hesitation is a priority in the COVID response, which is why we launched a global campaign that has already connected 2 billion people to reliable information from health experts and removed false claims about COVID and vaccines. This ongoing work will help inform our efforts, ”added Lever.
In February, Facebook said it would remove all denied claims about the coronavirus vaccine during the pandemic, and on Monday, the company said it had removed 2 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram.
In a blog post on Monday, Facebook also said it would expand its efforts to combat misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine by adding labels to all posts that discuss vaccines.
Facebook said it will initially add labels with information from the World Health Organization to posts that discuss vaccine safety and in the coming weeks will launch labels for more general posts about vaccines that will point users to information about them.
Facebook’s push to update its policy comes later President biden
Joe Biden’s Morning ReportThe Hill – Presented by Facebook – Biden hits the road, tout COVID-19 Oregon Senator takes center stage in the Democratic obstruction debate This week: Democrats are eyeing the next step after the relief bill’s victory of coronavirus MORELast week’s speech declaring that all American adults will be eligible for the vaccine by May 1, at the latest.
Meanwhile, research has indicated that there will be challenges about vaccine hesitation – especially among certain populations.
A PBS NewsHour / NPR / Marist survey released last week found that almost 30% of Americans in general said they did not plan to be vaccinated. Among men who identify themselves as Republicans, the same survey found that almost half said they had no plans to receive the coronavirus vaccine.