After a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate ( CCDH ) and Anti - Vax Watch found that a huge share ofmisinformationand confederacy theoriesabout vaccinescan be traced back to just a dozen hoi polloi , the CEOs of Facebook , Google , and Twitter told Congress they were n’t certain they would blackball them .
TheCCDH / Anti - Vax Watch reportfound that some 73 percent of misinformation on Facebook , and 17 percent on Twitter , is colligate to a group of 12 accounts including large anti - vaxxers Joseph Mercola , Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , Ty & Charlene Bollinger , Sherri Tenpenny , and Rizza Islam . The report also identified what it concluded were clear violations of platform policy on the cattle farm of disinformation about the novel coronavirus pandemic and vaccine in general . The report wasprominently citedina letterby 12 state attorneys world-wide to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding they do more to struggle coronavirus - related misinformation ; harmonise to theWashington Post , this mirror home Facebook research showing relatively bantam groups of users are primarily responsible for flooding the site with anti - vaccine content .
“ Analysis of a sample of anti - vaccine content that was shared or posted on Facebook and Twitter a total of 812,000 prison term between 1 February and 10 May 2025 shows that 65 percentage of anti - vaccine content is attributable to the Disinformation Dozen , ” the report states . “ Despite repeatedly violating Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter ’s terms of service agreements , nine of the Disinformation Dozen remain on all three platform , while just three have been comprehensively removed from just one platform . ”
Anti-vax conspiracist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Berlin in August 2020.Photo: Sean Gallup (Getty Images)
“ Research direct by CCDH last year has shown that political platform fail to act on 95 percent of the Covid and vaccine misinformation report to them , and we have uncovered evidence that Instagram ’s algorithm actively recommends similar misinformation , ” they added . “ trailing of 425 anti - vaccine accounts by CCDH prove that their total follow across political platform now stands at 59.2 million as a result of these failures . ”
At Thursday ’s hearing on disinformation in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce featuring Dorsey , Zuckerberg , and Alphabet / Google CEO Sundar Pichai , all three either evade or simply reiterated that their companies have rules when pressed by Representative Mike Doyle on the twelve anti - vaxxers , per TechCrunch .
Zuckerberg state Facebook would need to see specific examples of the substance in question , after which Doyle break up him . Pichai pivoted to a statistic about how many YouTube videos with mislead information about the pandemic the company had also deleted but added that “ some ” otherwise infringing depicted object was allow “ if it ’s masses ’s personal experiences . ” ( Doyle also turn off him off after re - asking the doubt . ) Dorsey simply stated Twitter moderator “ remove everything against our policy . ”
Facebook has previously raised a like demurrer to Pichai , with Facebook ’s head of wellness Kang - Xing Jin spell in an newspaper column last calendar month in theSan Francisco Chroniclethat “ Vaccine conversations are nuanced , so subject ca n’t always be clearly divided into helpful and harmful . It ’s surd to quarter the product line on posts that contain multitude ’s personal experiences with vaccines … We are working with experts to name and remove widely expose hoaxes that could put people at risk for harm , while also providing the fact from trusted reference that can help us armed combat vaccine misinformation during this critical time . ”
Antivax misinformation on social media and video sites like YouTube is believed to beby no means the only , but a major divisor in what aesculapian researchers call vaccinum hesitation across the land . Research has shown astrong linkbetweenanti - vax contenton social media internet site and the propagation of skepticism about theeffectiveness and safetyof vaccines . Polling has prove that double - finger’s breadth percentage of Americans saythey wo n’t takea coronavirus vaccine , with aclear partisan bentwhere Republicans and Donald Trump supporters are more opposed . However , the numeral of masses who claim they are unwilling to get immunize hasdropped rapidlyas it becomes more widely available and wellness official work to reassure the public vaccines on the market are safe and in force , CNN reportedearlier this month .
“ Coronavirus vaccinum only work if people actually get them . Pseudoscience coronavirus conspiracy theories pitch by a small number of uninformed anti - vaxxers have reached tens of jillion of social media following , ” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong , one of the state attorneys general who ratify the letter to Facebook and Twitter , told theWashington Postin a statement . “ These posts are in flagrant violation of Facebook and Twitter policies . Facebook and Twitter must fully and now enforce their own policies , or risk prolonging this pandemic . ”
Facebook toldEngadget in a statementthat actions it take to limit the compass of accounts spreading misinformation include “ reducing their distribution or absent them from our platform ” and that it has “ already film action against some of the radical in this report . ” A Twitter spokesperson narrate the site it does not work against “ every instance of misinformation ” but remove tweets that pose a endangerment of “ serious harm . ”
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