Instagram's Algorithms Serve Up COVID-19 Misinformation, Study Finds (npr.org) 65
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Instagram recommended false claims about COVID-19, vaccines and the 2020 U.S. election to people who appeared interested in related topics, according to a new report from a group that tracks online misinformation. From September to November 2020, Instagram recommended 104 posts containing misinformation, or about one post a week per profile, to 15 profiles set up by the U.K.-based nonprofit. The automated recommendations appeared in several places on the photo-sharing app, including in a new "suggested posts" feature introduced in August 2020 and the "Explore" section, which points users toward content they might be interested in.
To test how Instagram's recommendations work, the nonprofit, working with youth advocacy group Restless Development, had volunteers set up 15 new Instagram profiles. The profiles followed different sets of existing accounts on the social network. Those accounts ranged from reputable health authorities; to wellness, alternative health, and anti-vaccine advocates; to far-right militia groups and people promoting the discredited QAnon conspiracy theory, which Facebook banned in October. Profiles following wellness influencers and vaccine opponents were served up posts with false claims about COVID-19 and more aggressive anti-vaccine content, the researchers found. But the recommendations didn't end there. Those profiles were also "fed election misinformation, identity-based hate, and conspiracy theories," including anti-Semitic content. Profiles that followed QAnon or far-right accounts, in turn, were recommended disinformation about COVID and vaccines -- even if they also followed credible health organizations. The only profiles that were not served up misinformation followed, exclusively, recognized health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation. Facebook spokesperson Raki Wane told NPR: "This research is five months out of date and uses an extremely small sample size of just 104 posts. This is in stark contrast to the 12 million pieces of harmful misinformation related to vaccines and COVID-19 we've removed from Facebook and Instagram since the start of the pandemic."
"We're also working on improvements to Instagram Search, to make accounts that discourage vaccines harder to find," Wane said.
The study can be found here (PDF).
To test how Instagram's recommendations work, the nonprofit, working with youth advocacy group Restless Development, had volunteers set up 15 new Instagram profiles. The profiles followed different sets of existing accounts on the social network. Those accounts ranged from reputable health authorities; to wellness, alternative health, and anti-vaccine advocates; to far-right militia groups and people promoting the discredited QAnon conspiracy theory, which Facebook banned in October. Profiles following wellness influencers and vaccine opponents were served up posts with false claims about COVID-19 and more aggressive anti-vaccine content, the researchers found. But the recommendations didn't end there. Those profiles were also "fed election misinformation, identity-based hate, and conspiracy theories," including anti-Semitic content. Profiles that followed QAnon or far-right accounts, in turn, were recommended disinformation about COVID and vaccines -- even if they also followed credible health organizations. The only profiles that were not served up misinformation followed, exclusively, recognized health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation. Facebook spokesperson Raki Wane told NPR: "This research is five months out of date and uses an extremely small sample size of just 104 posts. This is in stark contrast to the 12 million pieces of harmful misinformation related to vaccines and COVID-19 we've removed from Facebook and Instagram since the start of the pandemic."
"We're also working on improvements to Instagram Search, to make accounts that discourage vaccines harder to find," Wane said.
The study can be found here (PDF).
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Is that the Timecube guy? I thought he was dead, but maybe his theories were right after all and he's back.
Re:Ministry of Truth (Score:5, Insightful)
So-called "common sense" is wrong more often than not. And given the amount of disinformation and information bubbles that people live in... no. Fox Lies and Hate Radio junkies are, in fact, incapable of determining what is true. They actively RUN from truthful information. Right-wing disinformation media shows all the signs of cult indoctrination, starting with their insistence that they are the "only true" information source - that listeners of Hannity, or that thankfully now-dead Limbaugh, or daily watchers of the Fox Lies propaganda channel, should see all other information as "the enemy".
The "Fox News Effect" is exceptionally problematic. Those who watch Fox Lies regularly are less informed than if they'd watched no news at all. [businessinsider.com] And this has been known about the disinformation mills of talk radio as well. [jstor.org] "[G]reater frequency of exposure to conservative talk radio independently corresponded to greater misinformation, while greater exposure to moderate programming was associated with being less misinformed, controlling for partisanship, ideology, and a number of other predictors."
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Re: Ministry of Truth (Score:1)
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they tow the same corporate line the rest of the news sources do.
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Re: Ministry of Truth (Score:3)
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Re: Ministry of Truth (Score:3)
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I think e3m4n was referring more to self limitation.
Re: Ministry of Truth (Score:1)
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It nicely proves your point.
Fox News admit they lie, [npr.org] but here we are.
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So-called "common sense" is wrong more often than not.
Common sense is right most of the time, but you only notice when it's not. "If I open the door, I can walk through it." "If I turn the right knob on the oven, it will get hot." "If it's raining, it will be wet outside."
An interesting corollary is that people go about their day and are right most of the time. "If I open this drawer, there will be things inside it." "I can make toast by putting bread in the toaster."
This is the opposite experience you might find in forums. In forums, we talk about things tha
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There is plenty of disinformation in the news from both sides of the political spectrum. What may have started out as the 'Fox News Effect' has now spread to ALL forms of media. We are all constantly propagandized by most news we are given; almost all is now designed to fulfill certain peoples' and groups agendas.
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Misinformation in Social Media? (Score:3)
I'm shocked.
:| <— this is my shocked face
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This is social media promoting only media you are likely to like - coloured as per your beliefs. You follow QAnon- you get Vaxer and baby eating sh*t. You follow the Guardian - you get served your special portions of "hate the Russians except this cute approved fella and do not look at the fact that he is a neon*zi". You follow RT - you get served your special portion of Radio Voice of Mordor and Vozh
Re: Misinformation in Social Media? (Score:2)
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The 'disinformation makes money' model is also used by The Hannity Report, Info Wars, Tucker Carlson, Fox and Friends: 'Entertainment' which the GOP depends on: It is a textbook example of fascism that equals authoritarian-government news we see in China and Russia. Once again, corporations are choosing and using politicians to benefit themselves.
TL;DR: The laws do exactly what the 'rich people' want.
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It is also in full use and view on pretty much all of MSNBC (Rachel Maddow, etc)....most of CNN too, and to an extent on the 3 major networks on their news broadc
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I watch Rush. Didn't care for him. I watched Rachel. Didn't care for her. Realized I didn't care for wingnuts.
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Re: Misinformation on the internet? Sound the alar (Score:2)
Re: Misinformation on the internet? Sound the alar (Score:2)
If its too good to be true, it probably is
Those that stand for nothing will fall for anything
Bait and switch
Theres is no such thing as a free lunch
Death and taxes are the only things you can really count on
The 9 scariest words in the english language are: Im from the government and Im here to help.
The people that taught gen-y and gen-z taught them to trust everything their handlers tell them. Its indoct
As do Twitter, Youtube, and presumably Facebook (Score:5, Interesting)
Twitter and Youtube do this all the time. I don't use facebook but it must too.
I use a plugin that deletes cookies automatically, so I am never logged into these sites and they have little targeting info to go on. Almost without fail, if I go to twitter or youtube for something informative, one of the "suggestions" will be the corresponding disinformation. It's pretty obviously trying to figure out how to target me.
This is the great evil of modern social media. They are making money promoting falsehood in order to get ad impressions (increase "engagement"). I did not choose the suggestions, they did. They know they are doing it, and everyone with a clue does too. Saying "the algorithm did it" is blaming a tool that they know is malfunctioning. They know perfectly well their algorithms are biased toward disinformation, but they keep using them despite watching it destroy society around them.
Re: As do Twitter, Youtube, and presumably Faceboo (Score:2)
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As much as I like good conspiracy theories, I think there is a much simpler explanation for this. After all, even with Siri et al, I guess it would be hard to have it report on your conversations at that scale while keeping it secret.
If you were discussing toasters with someone, it was probably because you or they needed or wanted one. The data companies have profiles of you where you are put in a demographic that, among other things, buy slightly more toasters this time of year. Among the 50 products you g
Re: As do Twitter, Youtube, and presumably Facebo (Score:2)
I'm always curious.... (Score:1, Troll)
...which "misinformation" are we talking about today?
For example, hard data from the CDC and WHO shows that the IFR for COVID is around 0.13%...more or less the same as the IFR for the plain ol' flu (0.1).
(For example, back in Sept/Oct, WHO reported breathlessly that 750 million people worldwide (1/10 the entire world population!) had likely had COVID - this is an inferred number, and what IFR is typically built on). Deaths were just hitting 1 mill. This gives us an IFR of 1/750 or about 0.13%).
Hard data
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This is probably the very "misinformation" that they don't want out there.
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Now I'm hearing that even if you've been vaccinated you should continue distancing, wearing a mask, not have a life, etc. What's the point of a vaccine if life won't be allowed to return to normal anyhow?
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Welcome to "you're a troll" country. LOL
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What's the IMR (Infection morbidity rate)? That is, those who end up with severe permanent conditions such as deafness (such as that from Measles), whether immediate or delayed for several years (e.g. Shingles).
It's not like the virus is simulating Russian Roulette and just staying on a binary kill/survive result, and being uninfluenced by treatment methods that became better over time.
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If TEN MONTHS of conversations are about how deadly dangerous this disease is that we have to shut down whole economies and have people hide quivering in their homes in fear, when I show up and say "Um...actually, it's not that deadly?" ...
and your reply is "well....but lets talk about morbidity!" that is called Goalpost shifting.
NOTHING in my post had anything to do with chronic affects or consequences.
Morbidity is a meaningful issue, certainly. Personally, my brush with covid left me with a cough at the
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"(Score:-1, Troll)"
QE-fucking-D
Thanks for the validation, woke mob.
Not ONE post arguing the numbers. Nice!
Oh noes, not the misinformation (Score:1)
Blue anon followers love to Karen on about any divergence from the liberal orthodoxy.
Why can't ever meanie be banned from the internet? Come on, we got Mr. Potato Head neutered. Why won't more people listen to us?
??? Health information from a Fashion site???? (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't Instagram fashion web site? What about this site prompted researchers to see if it had Covid misinformation on it? Has anyone ever gone to this site to find Covid information? I didn't think Instagram had *any* information on it.
When someone goes to instagram.com, it just displays a login page. It could be a bank for all I can tell. The links at the bottom show the following categories: Beauty, Dance & Performance, Fitness, Food & Drink, Home & Garden, Music, Visual Arts. I don't see science, current events, or even health. I just clicked on "Top Accounts" then picked a few random ones, (ignoring the ones that prompt me to login), and I got: A girl showing off bathing suits, white formal shoes, jeans, more clothes, nudity, some guy with his friends, and cat pics. There does not exist a more vapid site on the web.
Perhaps next these researchers can go to a barber shop looking for information on multidimensional calculus.
Ministry of truth (Score:2, Insightful)
I wonder when they'll start "fact-checking" any and all religions.
Before they'll do that, they have no leg to stand on to "fact-check" any other belief, unless the "fact-checkers" want to the last words on what is a "religion" and what isn't.
Belief in Q-entities that will bring salvation to the world in just two more weeks, Bro!, is not that much different than the awakening myths about Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed and not to forget His Noodly Appendage. If a belief can be so dangerous that it "needs" cen
So what? (Score:1)
If you rely on instagram for your medical advice, you deserve to get misinformation, since you are already an idiot.
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