Many vaccine misinformation on Facebook were downplayed after being flagged and declared false by third-party fact-checkers.
However, a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania in the US showed that "blatant misinformation was not exposed" to what was "factually accurate but misleading content."
“These unflagged stories highlighting rare deaths after vaccination were among the most viewed Facebook stories,” the researchers said.
To understand, the team conducted two experiments. The study previously found that misinformation containing false claims about the COVID vaccine reduces vaccination intentions by 1.5 percentage points.
The second tested both true and false claims and found that the content suggested the vaccine was harmful to health, which reduced vaccination intentions regardless of any potential impact of the veracity of the headline.
The team also measured exposure to all 13,206 vaccine-related URLs popular on Facebook during the first three months of the vaccine rollout (January to March 2021).
The findings, published in the journal Science, showed that URLs containing flagged misinformation were viewed 8.7 million times during the first three months of 2021.
In contrast, many of the credible mainstream news outlets published unflagged content indicating that vaccines were harmful to health and "they received millions of views."
The researchers said, "Our work shows that limiting the spread of misinformation has important public health benefits, but it is also important to consider gray-area content that is factually accurate but still misleading. "
He stressed the need to investigate "factually accurate but potentially misleading content in addition to outright lies."
However, a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania in the US showed that "blatant misinformation was not exposed" to what was "factually accurate but misleading content."
“These unflagged stories highlighting rare deaths after vaccination were among the most viewed Facebook stories,” the researchers said.
To understand, the team conducted two experiments. The study previously found that misinformation containing false claims about the COVID vaccine reduces vaccination intentions by 1.5 percentage points.
The second tested both true and false claims and found that the content suggested the vaccine was harmful to health, which reduced vaccination intentions regardless of any potential impact of the veracity of the headline.
The team also measured exposure to all 13,206 vaccine-related URLs popular on Facebook during the first three months of the vaccine rollout (January to March 2021).
The findings, published in the journal Science, showed that URLs containing flagged misinformation were viewed 8.7 million times during the first three months of 2021.
In contrast, many of the credible mainstream news outlets published unflagged content indicating that vaccines were harmful to health and "they received millions of views."
The researchers said, "Our work shows that limiting the spread of misinformation has important public health benefits, but it is also important to consider gray-area content that is factually accurate but still misleading. "
He stressed the need to investigate "factually accurate but potentially misleading content in addition to outright lies."