Researchers point to a worrying imbalance.
May 14, 2020
Facebook communities that distrust establishment health advice are more effective than government agencies and other reliable groups at reaching and engaging with undecided individuals, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
US researchers tracked vaccine conversations among 100 million Facebook users at the height of the 2019 measles outbreak and created a “battleground” map they say shows how such distrust could spread.
“Its core reveals a multi-sided landscape of unprecedented intricacy that involves nearly 100 million individuals partitioned into highly dynamic, interconnected clusters across cities, countries, continents and languages,” they write.
