The accusation is heavy: Facebook facilitates the creation of no-vax communities. This is the result of a new study published by researchers at George Washington University according to which social media fuels the spread of disinformation, as previous research has already shown. However, how this happens is unclear, and GW researchers have tried to better understand how Facebook’s mechanism that helps disinformation spread across the net works. Neil Johnson, professor of physics, and his team of researchers at George Washington University surveyed the Facebook community for a total of nearly 100 million users who have led public health debates throughout 2020.
But how was this study done? Starting from a community, the researchers tried to find a second strongly intertwined with the original and so on, to better understand how they interact with each other. The researchers found that traditional parenting communities were exposed to misinformation from two different sources within Facebook. First, during 2020, ‘alternative’ health communities, which generally focus on positive health and wellness messages such as how to maintain a healthy immune system, have acted as a key channel between traditional parenting communities and communities. of pre-Covid conspiracy theory promoting disinformation on topics like climate change, fluoride, chemtrails and 5G. This has strengthened the bond between these communities and allowed disinformation to flow more freely. Second, a core of anti-vaccination communities adjacent to traditional parenting communities has been able to continuously deliver disinformation about covid-19 and vaccines to parenting communities. Additionally, neither alternative health communities nor anti-vaccination communities were particularly large groups by Facebook’s standards, meaning they could still operate under the radar of the platform’s moderators. Facebook has previously sought to combat disinformation through the use of information banners at the top of Facebook communities to provide official health guidance and advice.
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