Easy access to information and the Internet has created a significant impact on society. From increasing general cultural and news literacy to empowering people to stay connected, the rapid information age has certainly transformed the way society communicates. However, with it have come several challenges – and the spread of misinformation is central among these challenges.
Fear of misinformation was especially prevalent during the Covid-19 pandemic, when there was a global state of mass confusion and lack of understanding of what the virus was, who could be affected, how to prevent infection, death, etc. -Medical professionals shared their thoughts on the virus, which challenged the opinions of trained medical professionals, causing not only chaos but a sense of distrust in the general community.
This is a transitional challenge in social media and public information platforms; companies and moderators struggle with the increasingly difficult balance between over-moderation and restricting free speech versus promoting a platform that spreads misinformation.
Late last week, YouTube, one of the world’s largest online video and media sharing platforms, released a new initiative in this regard. Dr. Garth Graham, Global Head of YouTube Health, wrote in a blog post titled “New ways for licensed healthcare professionals to reach people on YouTube” and explained, “When it comes to our health, people trust professionals of healthcare to give us the best advice. But the opportunity healthcare professionals have to inform and educate their patients largely stops at the clinic door. The reality is that most healthcare decisions are made outside the doctor’s office, in the daily lives of our patients. […] Today, we’re announcing that for the first time, certain categories of healthcare professionals and health information providers can apply to make their channels eligible for our health product features that launched in the US last year. This includes health resource information panels that help viewers identify videos from authoritative sources and health content shelves that highlight videos from these sources when searching for health topics so people can more easily navigate and evaluate information online health.”
Essentially, YouTube is trying to power higher quality health information through its platforms in hopes that this helps the wider YouTube community find more legitimate content and links they can trust.
PARIS, FRANCE – OCTOBER 08: In this photo illustration, social media app logos, … [+]
YouTube is certainly not the only platform that is experiencing major growth difficulties on this front. Facebook (now known as “Meta”) has received considerable scrutiny for many years over how it moderates content on its platforms, from Facebook’s current app to Instagram. The company’s CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg has been constantly under scrutiny on this topic, especially given that the platforms reach nearly 2 billion people a month.
Recently, the dramatic acquisition of Twitter Inc. by Tesla founder Elon Musk has attracted media attention. One of Musk’s self-proclaimed interests in buying the company was allegedly based on his dissatisfaction with the way Twitter was moderating content and controlling the flow of information. In a post last week, Musk shared an opening note to Twitter Advertisers: “The reason I bought Twitter is because it’s important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy way without resorting to violence. There is currently a great danger that social media will split into far-right and far-left echo chambers that generate more hatred and divide our society.”
Musk has congruently announced the formation of a “content moderation council” that will review content and account reinstatement decisions to ensure better alignment with Twitter’s mission and guidelines.
Indeed, this is also relevant in relation to health misinformation, as Twitter is a conduit for massive amounts of healthcare data and news. During the height of the pandemic, doctors and providers from all backgrounds took to Twitter (the most common hashtags included #MedTwitter, #MedEd – “medical education” or #FOAMed – “Free Open Access Medical Education”) to show the scenes on the front lines, often sharing their experiences and advice on how to deal with the virus and other illnesses. Of course, this quickly led to the transient problem: who to trust? Notably, Twitter boasts nearly 450 million monthly active users.
None of this content management work will be easy. The reason this problem even exists is because of a constant challenge between the right to free speech, the dissemination of truthful information, and public safety concerns. Finding the right balance between these factors is proving to be extremely challenging for these companies. Indeed, the best thing users can do for themselves is to ultimately consult their trusted licensed and trained medical professionals for any concerns. However, the question of how best to transmit information is one of the most important thought problems for leaders to ponder, as the future of our world truly depends on it.
