Facebook froze as Covid anti-vaccine comments swarmed users
In March, as claims about the dangers and
ineffectiveness of coronavirus vaccines
spun across social media and undermined attempts to stop the spread of the
virus, some Facebook employees
thought they had found a way to help.
By subtly altering how posts about vaccines are ranked in people's
newsfeeds, researchers at the company realized they could curtail the
misleading information individuals saw about COVID-19 vaccines and offer users
posts from legitimate sources like the World Health Organization.
Given these results, I'm assuming we're hoping to launch ASAP, one Facebook employee
wrote in March, responding to the internal memo about the study.
Instead, Facebook shelved some
suggestions from the study. Other changes weren't made until April.
When another Facebook researcher suggested disabling comments on
vaccine posts in March until the platform could do a better job of tackling
anti-vaccine messages lurking in them, that proposal was ignored.
Critics say Facebook was slow to act because it worried it might
impact the company's profits.
Why would you not remove comments? Because engagement is the only
thing that matters, said Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering
Digital Hate, an internet watchdog group. It drives attention and attention equals
eyeballs and eyeballs equal ad revenue.
In an emailed statement, Facebook said it has made considerable
progress this year with downgrading vaccine misinformation in users' feeds.
Comments
Post a Comment