Facebook adverts to ask users how Covid-19 misinformation makes them feel
3 min readFacebook will place adverts on its own platform encouraging users to consider the source of what they suspect to be Covid-19 misinformation and to ask themselves how it makes them feel.
The month-long campaign, launched in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and independent fact-checking organisation Full Fact, will encourage visitors to Facebook to complete a three-stage review when they encounter what they believe is a false claim: to check the source, how it makes them feel and the content’s context.
The adverts will reach tens of millions of social media users across the UK, European Union, Norway, Iceland, Middle East, Africa and Turkey as many countries governments’ are trying to encourage their populations to accept vaccinations amid vaccine hesitancy fuelled by online conspiracy theories and concerns over the efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab in the EU.
Users will be urged to scrutinise pandemic and vaccine-related content they’re unsure about, even if it appears to be science-based and to look to recognised public health authorities – such as the NHS or WHO – to check the context of the claim.
As false news is designed to manipulate people’s feelings to generate clicks, users should also ask themselves how such content makes them feel, Aïda Ndiaye, Facebook’s public policy manager, said.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, we’ll continue working with industry experts and people on our platforms to ensure we’re aggressively tackling misinformation and give people additional resources to scrutinise content they see online, helping them decide what to read, trust and share,” she said.
Will Moy, chief executive at Full Fact said the pandemic has illustrated that bad information puts lives at risk.
“With vaccine rollout now underway, knowing what to trust is more crucial than ever,” he said.
“Taking a moment to think before sharing something with friends and family will help keep everyone safe. We all have a part to play in slowing the spread of false claims and dangerous health advice.”
Facebook, sister social media network Instagram, Twitter and YouTube have all been criticised by the MPs for their role in hosting misinformation and disinformation linked to the pandemic and vaccine roll-outs.
An “unstoppable infodemic”, ranging from dangerous hoax treatments to conspiracy theories that led to attacks on 5G engineers last spring, could have been avoided if the Government had not delayed appointing an online harms regulator, a report from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee report found in July 2020.
While all the major social media platforms have detailed their efforts to remove or to label dangerous or potentially misleading coronavirus claims and videos containing false cures or unproven theories, anti-vaxx and other forms of pandemic misinformation is still circulating.
Research from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published in December last year found anti-vaccination groups on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter which have gained close to 877,000 new followers – totalling 59.2m – since June.
An estimated 5.4m of these followers are based in the UK, although many live in the US.
YouTube and Instagram are particularly fertile ground for anti-vaccine content, with each platform gaining around 4.3m followers since 2019, according to CCDH analysis.
