Facebook's COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Policies Fail as Design Features Undermine Effectiveness: Study


September 16, 2023

Tech Times

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when misinformation was widespread on the internet, social media giants like Facebook created unique policies to stop the transmission of false information—though later proven a failure.

A recent study, "The Efficacy of Facebook's Vaccine Misinformation Policies and Architecture During The COVID-19 Pandemic," published in Science Advances, raised alarming questions about Facebook's efforts to combat vaccine misinformation.

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David Broniatowski, lead study author and an associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering at GW, pointed out, "To effectively tackle misinformation and other online harms, we need to move beyond content and algorithms to also focus on design and architecture" Broniatowski notes.

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