Facebook research on “vaccination hesitation” beliefs found that a small group of users is conducting many of the discussions that may sow doubts or discouragement about getting a vaccine, The Washington Post reported.
Vaccination hesitation predates social media and COVID-19, as reported by the World Health Organization, and can hinder progress in eradicating vaccine-preventable diseases. The WHO points out that vaccine hesitation may not be entirely responsible for the 30% increase in measles cases worldwide in recent years, but it has played a role in the resurgence of measles.
Facebook banned false and misleading vaccine ads in October, weeks before the first coronavirus vaccines were available. In December, Facebook announced that it would remove false claims about COVID-19 vaccines and began to notify users if they had interacted with a post that contained false information. Measures are also taken to promote reliable information about COVID-19 vaccines.
The research described by Publish it seems to have more information about a gray area, for example, if a user mentions on Facebook that his symptoms after receiving a dose of the vaccine are worse than planned. Comments like this can be used to better understand the impact of the vaccine, but they can also make other users cautious, especially if they are already nervous about the vaccine.
The study seems to confirm what many Facebook users (and critics) have known for a long time: that there is an echo chamber effect that helps spread misinformation on the platform. The content that helps create this effect may not violate any of Facebook’s rules, but it can quickly metastasize between groups of susceptible users.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Facebook researchers found that there was significant overlap between users connected to QAnon conspiracy theories – which Facebook banned from the platform – and user communities who expressed skepticism about vaccines.
Facebook spokesman Dani Lever said in an email to The Verge that the company has partnered with more than 60 global health experts and studied content related to the COVID-19 vaccine and other information to inform its policies – adding that Facebook routinely studies trends that may be part of conversations on its platform, such as voting, prejudice, hate speech and nudity so you can continue to refine your products.
“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, ”she said. “This ongoing work will help inform our efforts.”