OPINION: The Vaccine to the Disinformation Virus

Illustration by Zamaan Qureshi

Disinformation has existed for centuries. False and contentious information naturally spreads like wildfire. The late 19th century era of "yellow-journalism" was the 1890's version of fake news. But the social media companies of today, who deliver so much of our news, have allowed misinformation and disinformation to run rampant on their platforms. Because it pays the bills. The content that is most incendiary, most outrageous, most controversial is prioritized by the algorithms of Facebook, Twitter, and Google. But when public health is on the line due to the COVID-19 pandemic those falsities are dangerous.

In April of 2020 the Director General, Dr. Tedros Adenhom Gabhresus, of the World Health Organization said Coronavirus disinformation was spreading faster than the virus itself. It’s not enough for social media platforms that bring people news to simply slap ineffective fact-check labels on some of the most viral content.

Facebook, in particular, needs to look long and hard at their business model. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make the connections here. Oxford researchers in a new study found that on the issues of COVID-19 and elections, President Donald Trump is the United States single largest spreader of disinformation. That’s put pressure on Facebook to put fact-check labels on Trump’s Facebook posts. Yet, Facebook internal data obtained by Buzzfeed News found that “labels on President Trump’s posts decrease reshares by about 8%.”

We cannot remove responsibility from these companies, either. Especially when conspiracy theories spread on their platforms, such as COVID-19 being a bioweapon engineered by the Chinese Communist Party or that Democrats created the “COVID-19 hoax” and are a cabal of satan worshipping pedophiles who have captured and abused children and their leader, are running rampant.

The algorithms built by these companies, however, prioritize and amplify this controversial content, boosting the engagement around false and fake information around a critical public health threat. Ultimately, the more eyes glued to the screens of Facebook and Twitter, the more ad revenue can be generated. And the more time people spend on these platforms, the more data can be collected about people to reinforce the algorithm and continue to spit back content that people could find shocking.

When it comes to taking responsibility for the content on the platforms, technology companies enjoy legal immunity from that because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, an antiquated law passed in 1996 originally aimed at preventing pornography from being accessed by children online. That law has since been used to shield the tech giants. It isn’t in the interest of Facebook and Twitter to boost or amplify child pornography or terrorist content, people would only leave the platform. Yet, the content swirling amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Election has run that fine line of “controversial,” “interesting,” and “incendiary.”

Under Section 230, the companies are supposed to display (to the U.S. government) that they are undertaking proactive content moderation practices to limit the spread of disinformation and harmful content on their platforms. President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump have each called for a repeal to Section 230 but for different reasons and with different goals in mind. Many conservatives tout that these platforms are censoring conservative voices while liberals say far-right groups are mobilizing on these platforms. In October and November of 2020, the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees held two separate hearings with Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) and Jack Dorsey (CEO of Twitter) to have them discuss reforms to Section 230 and “censorship” of the New York Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop. This debate entirely misses the point.

What Congress and the Republicans should be focused on is putting their foot down on the companies who are complicit in the spread of viral disinformation regarding COVID-19. Advocacy groups and civil society such as Avaaz and The Real Facebook Oversight Board (which I work for) have documented examples of the real-world harms the spread of this disinformation has. What pays Zuckerberg’s bills is what’s killing Americans. COVID-19 is not a hoax and masks are necessary.

The platforms are letting false content accumulate millions of impressions before taking any action. If they do take action, that action has proven to be ineffective. And when critics speak up or the government gets involved, the companies are not held accountable. These digital kleptocracies have proven that they cannot hold themselves accountable. Thus, the responsibility falls on civil society and the U.S. government to take meaningful action if we are to stop the spread of this “infodemic” that is ultimately killing people.