Social media has dramatically changed the way in which individuals go about their day to day lives. The simple task of keeping informed about global events has moved from print media to social media. Most humans all over the globe receive their daily intake of news and current events from their phones via social media. News corporations now all have some form of a social media account that their subscribers can interact with. This has caused multiple issues when it comes to credibility as fake news began to circulate the airways of social media. This is because anyone can post about anything at any time on social media, in particular on Facebook. The spread of medical misinformation on Facebook reached an all-time high during the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic thus leading to global panic. There is no doubt that the credibility of news and information from social media is heavily declining and with billions of people all over the globe now relying on social media as their primary source of news, there has never been a better time to stop the spread of medical misinformation.

The rise of social media has changed the way that individuals read the news. 90% of internet and social media users seek online health information as the first port of call when experiencing a health concern (Choudrie et al., 2021). This figure alone shows the dramatically high number of users using social media as their primary source of, in their eyes, reliable news. Unfortunately, there is a very limited amount of reliable and reputable news that comes from social media due to the high volume of pollution in the form of fake news articles, especially involving cases of medical misinformation. The rise of social media has caused widespread chaos when it comes to finding reputable news sources online. Older adults were reported to find social media overwhelming and challenging to use (Choudrie et al., 2021). This is due to the high volume of fake news and opinion online when in the search for daily news. This alone shows the outcome of news moving to social media. It is expected that in at least 10 years’ time, most news will be found online on social media making it increasingly harder for older adults as stated above to receive and read real reputable news, especially with the rise of Covid-19. The spread of medical misinformation with the rise of Covid-19 over the past few years has brought an added sense of stress when it comes to separating fact from fiction on social media. Unfortunately, opinion can oftentimes get in the way of facts and the truth when it comes to online news, which in recent times has led to individuals becoming hesitant to get vaccinated against Covid-19 due to what they read online. Research showed that many individuals are unwilling to get vaccinated due to their own adopted opinions regarding Covid-19 based on what they have read or seen on social media (Lockyer et at., 2021). These findings suggest that the spread of medical misinformation can have drastic effects on one’s opinion towards something such as a vaccine.

People took to social media to voice their concerns regarding the pandemic which led to social media being littered with fake news and medical misinformation relating to the pandemic. Everything from home remedies in the fight against the virus to conspiracy theories relating to the origin of the virus itself. Covid-19 vaccination hesitancy is due to the context of the relationship between the spread of medical misinformation relating to Covid-19 and the emotional reactions that come with reading these false articles and posts (Lockyer et at., 2021). These emotional responses from social media posts relating to Covid-19 persuaded individuals to change their stance on the vaccine. People were desperate for answers because there wasn’t any information on the virus. In Iran, during the start of the pandemic in late 2019, a rumour circulated on social media that instructed users to drink alcohol to kill the virus. This led to 300 deaths due to the consumption of counterfeit alcohol containing toxic methanol. Over 1000 people were hospitalised (Love et al., 2020). During a time when billions of people were in fear of this unknown virus, it was evident that humans were at their most vulnerable when exposed to an unknown experience such as the pandemic. Billions of people all over the globe turned to social media with the aim to protect themselves and their own families from the virus. Circulation of rumours on social media regarding the use of the chemicals chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine led to multiple deaths also and hospitalisations all over the globe (Love et al., 2020). As a result of this users took to social media for the first time to fight against the spread of medical misinformation. Instead of sharing these articles and rumours of virus remedies, users began to report and spread awareness that not everything you read in the media is true. Questions began to rise with politicians alike questioning how this sort of medical misinformation occurs in the first place. Social media had taken the world by storm and soon the war against the spread of medical misinformation was named ‘The Parallel Pandemic’ due to the relevancy of social media during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The spread of medical misinformation comes down to one aspect of social media in particular which is a lack of censorship. Anyone with a smartphone can post anything at any time about any topic of their choosing. Facebook has tried to solve this issue by introducing the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), a branch of the Florida-based journalism think tank, Poynter. Facebook users in the US and Germany can now flag articles they think are deliberately false, these will then go to fact-checkers from the IFCN. From this point, if the post is found by the IFCN to be deemed fake, the post will be given a ‘fake’ tag which will negatively impact the story’s score on the Facebook algorithm, making it harder for people to see the post from then on. The problem is that fake news still can be posted on Facebook until the point where someone in the IFCN has seen it and reports it which can be up to a matter of days. Fake news still holds all its power for those few days until something is done about it meaning that it still allows millions upon millions of people to view the story at any given time before it is flagged by the IFCN. Most social media platforms only censor posts including hate speech, glorification of violence and harmful or dangerous activities (Niemiec, 2020). The inconsistencies within the binding rules and regulations of these social media platforms are another reason that there is a dramatic lack of censorship when it comes to what is allowed to be posted online. Posting online and on social media about world events and politics is becoming increasingly popular and will continue to grow as the world progresses with technology. The most worrying aspect regarding this is the potential increase in the spread of medical misinformation.

As more people move to social media to gather news and information about whatever it is that they please, more people will be exposed to fake news articles. As it has been discussed earlier on, the danger that medical misinformation has on social media users can be devastating, to say the least. To fix this, social media platforms such as Facebook must tighten their rules and regulations surrounding the use of the platform. For too long now, users have been exposed to fake news, and fictional articles while articles that contain violence, hate speech and dangerous activity are taken down immediately. The dangers of medical misinformation need to be considered on social media platforms. These fictional articles have killed people and will continue to do so if platforms such as Facebook don’t improve their rules and user regulations. As well as this, to make things even more difficult for the community to seek reputable journalism, countries including China and Russia have censored most real news that comes into their countries, social media included. The problem is that real journalism is being treated the same as fake news and medical misinformation. Social media platforms such as Facebook must take action to change this. While they might not be able to change country policy, they most certainly can change the way that they run their sites. If this is not acted on soon, social media platforms will continue to run as a business and do what is only right for the business itself rather than considering what sort of impact medical misinformation can have on the greater community.

There is no doubt that the rise of social media has impacted news corporations and the greater community alike worldwide. The effect that social media and the spread of medical misinformation have had on the community is quite dramatic. Lives are now at risk due to the lack of censorship and morality on social media platforms. Facebook has attempted to eradicate the spread of medical misinformation with the introduction of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) which is a big step forward in the fight against fake news. Ultimately, the community won’t see a change until all social media platforms do their bit to protect their users from being exposed to potentially dangerous false information regarding serious world events. While social media is mostly used for the better of the community, the growing trend over the last 10 years is the rise of medical misinformation and its ability to seep its way into the community’s everyday lives. It’s not just up to the community to alter the issue, it’s up to the platforms to take charge and take responsibility in the fight against medical misinformation.

Conference Paper