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FB studying vaccine hesitancy

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15 March 2021, 09:07 AM
wtg
FB studying vaccine hesitancy
Scary on a number of levels.

quote:
Facebook is conducting a vast behind-the-scenes study of doubts expressed by U.S. users about vaccines, a major project that attempts to probe and teach software to identify the medical attitudes of millions of Americans, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The research is a large-scale attempt to understand the spread of ideas that contribute to vaccine hesitancy, or the act of delaying or refusing a vaccine despite its availability, on social media – a primary source of health information for millions of people. It shows how the company is probing ever more nuanced realms of speech, and illustrates how weighing free speech versus potential for harm is more tenuous than ever for technology companies during a public health crisis.


https://www.seattletimes.com/n...acebook-study-finds/


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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier

15 March 2021, 09:58 AM
ShiroKuro
Thanks for posting this, I'll read it more closely later. But...


quote:
social media – a primary source of health information for millions of people.


Ugh. This is indeed scary!!

quote:
It shows how the company is probing ever more nuanced realms of speech, and illustrates how weighing free speech versus potential for harm is more tenuous than ever for technology companies during a public health crisis.


Also privacy... What's a reasonable expectation of privacy on FB if you're posting with settings at "friends only" as opposed to "public"? If this study were conducted at a university, I don't think the IRB would approve it...


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15 March 2021, 06:12 PM
QuirtEvans
quote:
Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Thanks for posting this, I'll read it more closely later. But...


quote:
social media – a primary source of health information for millions of people.


Ugh. This is indeed scary!!



I don't know. I suspect (based on nothing more than gut feeling) that many of those who get health information through social media would otherwise get no information at all, and on balance the information they get, though clearly wrong at times, is probably better than nothing.

On average, for most people, over time.