How Anti-Vaxxer Propaganda Spread

The quickest way for something to go viral is obviously through social media. The Guardian conducted a simple test on Facebook where they created a new account with no affiliation and then they typed in the word ‘vaccine’ in the Facebook’s search bar. Immediately, Facebook’s autofill is overrun by anti-vaccine propaganda despite typing in a neutral search term. 

YouTube has similar issues as well. Similar to Facebook, “YouTube’s recommendation algorithm steers viewers from fact-based medical information toward anti-vaccine misinformation” said Julia Carrie Wong. Although these two companies proclaim they are working on reducing misinformation which could harm the real-world, it is doubtful whether they will ban the anti-vaccination content. Currently neither company see the content as a violation of their rules for content. Recently Pinterest blacklisted the term ‘vaccination’ completely from search. Sometimes, you just need to take extreme measures. Facebook and YouTube could learn a thing or two from Pinterest. 
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