BBC Radio 4: The Misinformation Virus

Not listened to this but thought it might be of interest.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000c9sm

 

I'm sure they will soon abandon the virus theory and put it all down to abnormal information beliefs.

 

Heard it go out live yesterday, it was quite interesting. They looked into how misinformation spreads, and the fact that the way the internet is structured can actually exacerbate the effects even before the bots get going.

 

Haven't listened but I'm guessing that they don't question the sources of some of the 'misinformation'; eg SMC, the Lancet, the BMJ or other supposed 'guardians of the truth'(?)

 

No, different focus altogether!

 

Same with fake facts about a lot of topics, not just science.

E.g. someone being reported as saying something that they didn't actually say. Spreads very easily.

And people/organisations can too easily pretend to be authoritative sources of information when they really aren't.

I do love and am very grateful for the internet, (especially due to the social isolation that ME has caused for me) but the effect of the internet on misinformation does trouble me a lot. I wonder how much it has contributed to the frequency of people holding extreme views (e.g. conspiracy theories, believing global warming is fake).

But if we didn't have the Internet, we (the ME community) would never have been able to connect ME patients to support each other and to make people aware of the dangers of the BPS approach. And for people to work together to publicly challenge it.

 

This misinformation and hype was discussed on another thread, and how physicians and researchers should reach out more on social media concerning unscientific treatments (surgery) and give both the positive and negatives. I follow a few doctors on twitter and they're having a hell of time dismissing and trying to educate all the 'anti-vaxxer' cults.

 

This is just part of the narrative of attack on the internet to safe guard us all so that all truth can come from the likes of the Murdoch empire.

 

Who decides that the theory of a conspiracy is fake. Is it the government? Which government? The media?

The US one? The Russian one. North Korea? China? the UK?

 

It's all a waste of time. Antivaxxers only comprise 1-2% of the population in most regions and are not the most common cause of a child being unvaccinated. Anti-vaxxer numbers are not growing significantly, 95%+ vaccination rates can be achieved without spending any effort convincing these antivaxxers. The primary characteristic is that they're skeptical of mainstream medicine and thus unlikely to be convinced by arguments on the internet, no matter how authoritative.