The impact of misinformation in social media in the US

Social media misinformation in the US is the unintentional and intentional spread of rumours and false news using social media (Thai, Wu, et.al, 2016). According to Matsa and Shearer (2018), about 68 per cent of Americans receives news on social media. However, it is these social media that led to the spread of false information which in turn impacted the people in the US well-being negatively by preventing the spread of authentic news. According to Fox (2018), it is found that false news was 70 per cent more likely to be shared compared to credible news. The spread of false news regarding vaccines would give many parents misconception about vaccines which would prevent children from getting vaccinated properly against VPD. Their children are then more vulnerable to these diseases which could have been easily prevented using vaccines, affecting the health of themselves and the people around them by allowing the spread of these diseases. This essay will describe the negative impacts of the spread of misinformation using social media on the well being of the people of the US, discuss a current solution and suggest an improvement to the current solution.

The spread of false news through social media led to the misconception of vaccines which in turn discourage parents from vaccination of their children leading to the spread of VPD, affecting children in the US health. This is eminent in the case of anti-vaccinators in the US whereby social media is used to spread untrue news about vaccination. According to Shelby (2017), due to the lack of evidence to support the claims of danger due to vaccination, anti-vaccine activist depends on the spread of false information on vaccines through the use of social media using fabricated stories and photographs taken from unrelated sources. The actions of these activists led to an increase in vaccine refusal and delayed vaccine schedules. According to a 2009 National Immunization survey in the US as quoted by Shelby (2017), among parents of children age 24 to 35 months, 25.8 per cent admitted to delaying vaccines and 8.2 per cent refused the vaccine. Due to the refusal of vaccination, the spread of deadly diseases which could have been prevented by vaccination increased. According to MacDonald (2015), there were many recent outbreaks of VPD (Vaccine-preventable diseases) due to under-vaccinated or non-vaccinated communities. MacDonald (2015) also found that parents in the US that had delayed or refused vaccines are more likely to have researched about vaccines through social media which is prominent in incorrect information rather than approaching healthcare providers and authorities. According to Brunson (2013), parents in the US rely on the internet to retrieve information and advice pertaining to vaccines. The spread of misleading information through social media convinced many to stop allowing their children to received vaccination thus leading to the problem of repeated increase in VPD which could have been stopped if parents had received authentic information.

VPD outbreaks could be easily prevented but due to the spread of false information on social media, many people are still suffering from VPD. According to Dube, Laberge and Guay (2013), pertussis, a type of contagious VPD which affects the respiratory system, could have been prevented. However, due to the increasing controversies spread across social media regarding the safety of the vaccines posted by anti-vaccination activist, the uptake for pertussis vaccination plans declined. (2013). The convenience of social media allows the anti-vaccination activist to easily spread false information pertaining to their cause, convincing many parents to not vaccinate their children. According to Salathe and Khandelwal (2011), social media containing similar opinion towards vaccination would lead to an increase in the probability of large outbreaks of diseases. Salathe and Khandelwal (2011) added that there is growing evidence from other studies that show that due to the serious social clustering of exemption of vaccination, there is an increasing risk of VPD outbreaks. Brunson (2013) also agrees that rather than rejecting vaccination decisions independently, they are more likely to follow the decisions made by their social networks. This is further supported by Mundasad (2018) who stated that the rise of fake news about vaccines which supposedly be able to prevent measles, a VPD, is behind the rise of the spread of measles cases. Overall, the rise of VPD affecting the health of the people is caused by the rise and spread of false information through social media in the personal networks of parents leading to the decline in vaccination of their children, vaccination which would have prevented the spread of VPD and defend the health of the children, the parents and the people around them.

Recently, many attempts to ease the impact of the spread of false news regarding vaccination. For example, many social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube are regulating information posted regarding vaccines. According to Bever (2019), Facebook, a popular social media platform, announces that it is barring certain search terms regarding anti-vaccine advertising and YouTube, a video sharing website, are blocking anti-vaccination channels from distributing online advertisements. Telford (2019) also agrees that social media platforms such as Pinterest, are trying to prevent the spread of false information about vaccines by banning all content related to it. Social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube understood that the spread of false news concerning vaccines is harmful and believes that by regulating search terms and revising content uploaded, they are able to slow the spread and reduce its impact on the US population (Wong, 2019).

However, according to Solon (2018), it is virtually impossible to bar every false information regarding vaccines due to the way it is presented as the algorithm is unable to identify the data that are posted in different types of languages and media. Telford (2019) also states that Pinterest prevented the spread of false news by blocking all the information posted, users will find it harder to attain correct information related to the issue. In another existing proposal, the US authorities are also attempting to lighten the impact of false news by introducing education campaigns to advise the adults about the advantages of vaccines, but research found that misinformation is complex to correct and only fueled more misconception on vaccines. (Seaman, 2014). This displays the ineffectiveness in the attempts to ease the impact of the spread of false information through the regulation of content in social media and hosting campaigns regarding vaccines.

The following is the proposed solution that could help improve the current situation. US authorities could start enforcing compulsory education on young adults and teens to notify them about the effects and functionality of vaccines and alert them about the dangers of false information being spread on social media. This long-term solution would allow future American adults to understand the importance of vaccination and prepare them when faced with fabricated material in the future. According to the Straits Times (2018), a similar strategy has already been implemented in Brazil which ensures an education that teaches school children to identify false news are compulsory. Strait Times (2018) further added that despite the children’s young age, the strategy seems to be working well. UK have also taken steps to implement this method to counter fake news by collaborating with state schools to teach students how to identify and question information on the internet. (Tickle, 2018). The fact that countries such as the UK and Brazil have already implemented this solution highlights the effectiveness of compulsory education for the young in regard to identifying false news and the US could further improve this strategy by emphasizing the impact of false news on vaccination while educating the benefits of vaccines through compulsory education in schools.

This essay examined the impact of the spread of false news regarding vaccines through social media in the US, affecting both parents and children alike. Since more Americans are likely to share false news compared to authentic news, the spread of false information about vaccines leads many to have a misconception regarding vaccines causing more children to remain unvaccinated against VPD. Although there are healthcare providers that would provide authentic information about vaccines, many still relied on the internet to attain information. However, information researched through social media is prominent in incorrect information which led many in the US to believe in the false claims pertaining to vaccines. Even though the current solutions did lighten the impact slightly, it’s still ineffective and only viable in the short run. The proposed solution of education starting young is more effective in the long run in comparison as they will be able to understand the benefits of vaccination and the truth about false news in social media before being misled by them.

References:

Matsa K.E., Shearer E.  (2018). News use Across Social Media Platforms 2018. Pew Research Center, Journalism and Media. Retrieved from: https://www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/

Thai T., Weili Wu, et al. (2016). Big Data in Complex and Social networks (Chapman & Hall/ CRC Big Data series. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CA4NDgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA125&ots=wEmI4bfC59&dq=social%20media%20misinformation%20&lr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=social%20media%20misinformation&f=false

Fox (2018). Fake news: Lies spread faster on social media than truth does. NBCnews

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