Facebook has attempted to change the narrative about its reputation as a place where misinformation runs rampant among its users, but it’s finally had to admit that anti-vaccine and coronavirus misinformation has been some of the most popular pieces of content on the site in recent months.
After a week of sharing information on what’s popular on the social media network, Facebook acknowledged as much, according to the Washington Post. Earlier this week, Facebook released a list of the most shared and liked items on the platform between April and June 2021, showing that the most popular topics were Aaron Rodgers and online CBD, rather than right-wing pundits. However, doubters were perplexed as to why the corporation didn’t share data from prior months.
Facebook also shared details on what was popular during other months of the year: coronavirus misinformation on Saturday.
For the first time, Facebook acknowledged the vast reach of such information on Saturday evening, saying that an article raising worries that the coronavirus vaccine could cause mortality was the most popular link on its site from January to March this year.
It further claimed that another website spreading false material on Covid-19 was among the platform’s top 20 most frequented pages.
All of this comes only weeks after President Joe Biden said that Facebook was “killing people” by disseminating misinformation that was not properly controlled by the social media platform. The article goes into great detail about what Facebook revealed, but it’s yet another reminder that the site has amplified some of the worst aspects of anti-vaccine skepticism, which has helped prolong the pandemic by keeping large swaths of the population unvaccinated despite overwhelming evidence that vaccination is safe, effective, and life-saving for millions.
