Sensationalized Claims About Bogus ‘Miracle Cures’ Flourish On Social Media. Now Facebook, Other Sites Are Working To Limit Their Reach.
Facebook and YouTube are being flooded with scientifically dubious and potentially harmful information about alternative cancer treatments and other "miracle cures." The companies are facing increasing pressure to do something to address the problem.
Reuters:
Facebook To Tackle Content With Misleading Health Claims
Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it was taking steps to reduce promotion of products based on misleading health-related claims. In a blog post, the social media company said it had made two updates last month to reduce posts with exaggerated or sensational health claims. (7/2)
The Washington Post:
Facebook Wants To Limit The Reach Of Bogus Medical ‘Cures’ By Treating Them Like Spam
Facebook will “down-rank” posts that it believes contain health misinformation, meaning those posts will appear in the news feeds of fewer users, and less prominently. The down-ranking will also apply to some posts from Facebook groups devoted to natural treatments, which will show up less often in the news feeds of group members. (Ohlheiser, 7/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Facebook, YouTube Overrun With Bogus Cancer-Treatment Claims
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube has been cutting off advertising for bogus cancer-treatment channels, a spokesman said. It is working with medical doctors to identify content promoting unproven claims and medical conspiracy theories and has tweaked its algorithms to reduce the number of times these dubious videos are presented to users. Facebook and YouTube detailed their recent actions on cancer-related content after the Journal presented them with its findings. Widespread misinformation sometimes appeared alongside ads, videos or pages for proven treatments, the Journal found. (Hernandez and McMillan, 7/2)
The Hill:
Facebook Seeks To Limit Circulation Of Debunked Medical Claims
Facebook's update does not explicitly mention what it is doing about groups dedicating to promoting "exaggerated or sensational health claims." Most of the announcement focuses on down-ranking posts in the News Feed and predicts some pages will be affected. (Birnbaum, 7/2)
Bloomberg:
Facebook (FB) Is Taking Steps To Curb Sensational Health Claims
Tech companies are increasingly trying to battle a proliferation of dubious health-related content on their sites, and are also aggressively trying to weed out hate speech and political misinformation. (Schuetz, 7/2)
In other health and technology news —
Stat:
5 Names To Know In Digital Therapeutics
No one really knew what digital therapeutics were 10 years ago. Today, there’s still no good definition. At its simplest, the field includes apps intended to be used like medicine or even with medicine — think of the ovulation-tracking app that was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for contraception, or the apps that work with sensors stuck on pills or in blood glucose readers. The field also includes video games and apps designed to replicate well-established mental health therapies. (Sheridan, 7/3)
