The first findings from an internal Facebook study of doubts about the coronavirus vaccine could include an overlap between users who are skeptical about vaccines and accounts affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Facebook’s internal investigation is analyzing posts that are not under its ban on vaccine misinformation, but which fall into a grayer area, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing study documents.
As part of the research, Facebook data scientists divided US users, groups and pages into 638 segments of the population to analyze vacant beliefs that hold the vaccine, the Post reported.
Early evidence from internal findings indicates an overlap between communities that are skeptical about vaccines and those affiliated with the unfounded QAnon conspiracy theory, according to the publication.
Facebook has pledged to ban all accounts affiliated with conspiracy theory in October.
However, users are constantly forming new QAnon groups, accounts, and pages using conflicting tactics that try to hide their conspiracy theory, according to Facebook. As Facebook identifies the pages, they are removed, the company says.
The first findings from the internal study also suggest that most of the hesitant vaccine content comes from a relatively small subgroup of users.
The internal study found that only 10 of the 638 segments of the population contained half of the total vacation on the platform, and in the segment of the population with the highest hesitation of the vaccine, only 111 users contributed half of that hesitation, according to the publication.
The document viewed by the Post did not identify how Facebook defined a segment or a grouped community, but mentioned that the segments could be at least 3 million people.
Facebook says it is standard to study the types of content on its platforms to understand trends and identify emerging issues to determine action against potentially harmful content.
The reported study is just one way Facebook has taken steps to combat coronavirus vaccine misinformation amid increased scrutiny by officials over the handling of such false claims.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have worked with more than 60 global health experts and studied COVID-19-related content, including vaccines and misinformation, to inform our policies,” said Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever, in a statement.
Facebook studies “routinely” issues, including COVID-19, voting, prejudice and hate speech to “understand emerging trends to understand emerging trends so we can build, refine and measure our products,” Lever said.
“Public health experts have made it clear that addressing vaccine hesitation is a top priority in COVID’s response, which is why we have launched a global campaign that has already connected 2 billion people to reliable information from health experts and eliminated false claims about COVID and vaccines. This ongoing activity will help us inform our efforts “, added Lever.
In February, Facebook said it would remove all dismantled claims about the coronavirus vaccine during the pandemic, and on Monday the company said it removed 2 million content from Facebook and Instagram.
In a blog post on Monday, Facebook also said it would expand its efforts to combat coronavirus vaccine misinformation by adding tags to all posts discussing vaccines.
Facebook has said it will initially add information tags from the World Health Organization to posts discussing vaccine safety, and in the coming weeks will launch tags for more general posts about vaccines that will direct users to information about them.
Facebook’s push to update its policy comes after that President Biden
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Meanwhile, polls have indicated that there will be challenges regarding vaccine hesitation – especially among some populations.
A PBS NewsHour / NPR / Marist poll released last week found that nearly 30 percent of Americans generally said they did not intend to get vaccinated. Of men who identify as Republicans, the same poll found that nearly half said they did not intend to receive the coronavirus vaccine.