Tech platforms face ‘whack-a-mole’ situation in fighting health misinformation

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Research the Council of Canadian Academies released in 2023 said COVID-19 misinformation alone contributed to more than 2,800 Canadian deaths.

No matter how bountiful or verdant that garden is, even the head of YouTube’s global health division admits it’s often in need of tending.“But also…how do you plant the seeds and make sure people have access to good information as well as high quality information?”

Platforms take the risks seriously, Graham said in an interview. “We are always concerned about anything that may produce harm.”YouTube, for example, has banned content denying the existence of some medical conditions or contradicting health authority guidance on prevention and treatment.Examples embedded in its medical misinformation policy show the company removes posts promoting turpentine, gasoline and kerosene as a treatment for certain conditions because these substances cause death.

He says there’s a nimbleness to spreaders of misinformation, who are often motivated to keep finding ways to circumvent removal policies because their posts can boost profits and brands or spread an ideology.“They can work around the moderation strategies, but that just shows how we’re not going to fix this with one tool,” Caulfield said.In its misinformation policy posted on its website, Meta acknowledges the difficulties, saying “what is true one minute may not be true the next minute.

At YouTube, workers, including some who form an “intelligence desk” monitoring posts and news to detect trends that might need to be mitigated, are used along with machine learning programs, which the company says are well suited to detecting patterns in misinformation. CAMH runs a YouTube channel where medical professionals explain everything from schizophrenia to eating disorders. Production funding came from YouTube, but the institution’s resources were used for script writing and clinical review, CAMH spokeswoman Hayley Clark said in an email.Graham sees it as a good example of the health-care profession “meeting people where they are,” which he said is “how we battle misinformation.

These organizations want to get credible information out, but in the cash-strapped and time-lacking health-care industry, there’s always another patient to help.

 

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