Tracking Facebook connections between parent groups and vaccine misinfo

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Joe Amon)

Misinformation about the pandemic and the health measures that are effective against SARS-CoV-2 has been a significant problem in the US. It's led to organized resistance against everything from mask use to vaccines and has undoubtedly ended up killing people.

Plenty of factors have contributed to this surge of misinformation, but social media clearly helps enable its spread. While the companies behind major networks have taken some actions to limit the spread of misinformation, internal documents indicate that a lot more could be done.

Taking more effective action, however, would benefit from more clearly identifying what the problems are. And, to that end, a recent analysis of the network of vaccine misinformation provides information that might be helpful. It finds that most of the worst misinformation sources are probably too small to stand out as being in need of moderation. The analysis also shows that the pandemic has brought mainstream parenting groups noticeably closer to groups devoted to conspiracy theories.

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