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Increasing misinformation about the use of animal medication as COVID protection

The last few years have brought a major risk from social networks to the fore: spreading false information. Since meddling in the United States’ election campaign, there have been some studies that have examined the role of falsehoods on social media. Ultimately, it turned out that misinformation spread much more frequently than serious reporting.

The coronavirus pandemic has by no means defused the situation, the situation has become even more confusing. One reason the American health authority FDA is now sounding the alarm. Because a dangerous report made the rounds on TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. The animal drug ivermectin was touted as a cure by anti-vaccination campaigns.

The ivermectin preparation is usually only for animals (Image: Soumyabrata Roy / NurPhoto)

As a result, an increased number of people who had taken the drug and showed symptoms of poisoning answered the emergency number. They had previously seen postings or videos with millions of views promoting ingestion as an alternative to vaccination. Hashtags were used, such as # ivermectin4covid, which have since been blocked by social networks.

One problem is that every network now approaches these types of contributions differently. The Reddit platform initially blocked the removal of content. Here it was argued that open and authentic discussions and debates were welcomed and that only fraudulent content and content that could lead to injury would be blocked. One reason that many Reddit moderators protested against the platform’s approach last week.

On the other hand, Facebook takes full action against such content. Posts that mentioned the purchase, sale or donation of Ivermectin are consistently deleted, but the blue group has a problem finding them first. Because the vaccine opponents who spread these theories simply use different descriptions for the preparation.

Own opinion

It’s still a shame that content that spreads misinformation is easy to post and share. On the other hand, it is almost impossible for a social network to put all users under general suspicion and to scan all content. Solutions are required here that do not yet exist and hopefully turn the tap on the internet trolls and anti-vaccination agents in the foreseeable future.

Via The Verge

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