France, Anti-Vaxxers and Big Tech.

A 2019 Gallup poll conducted in 144 countries showed France as home to some of the strongest anti-vaccine sentiment in the world.1 The Covid-19 pandemic has heightened and reinforced France’s hesitancy towards vaccines. This article discusses the reasons behind the spread of misinformation around the Covid-19 vaccine in France, how it proliferates quickly and the role that big tech companies play in reducing the spread of misinformation.

Scepticism around vaccination in France stems from an erosion of trust in both the political and medical elite.2 The yellow vest movement, commonly known to demonstrate around issues such as tax and inequality, have more recently been protesting about the French government using fear around the virus to cow its citizens. The mistrust in the medical elite has been fuelled by high profile scandals such as the contaminated blood cases of the 1990s and the more recent trial over Mediator diabetes pill deaths. Concerns over potential conflicts of interest between experts and pharmaceutical groups have created further mistrust between French citizens and the medical elite.

Research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found online misinformation about Covid-19 in France mainly takes the form of conspiracy theories, which are spread through social media.3 An example of a prevalent conspiracy theory is the claim that 5G is to blame for the rapid spread of Covid-19.4 Active Facebook groups are common breeding grounds for conspiracy theories and misinformation. BBC News recently reported on a case where a social media post claimed that Covid-19 had “a 99.97% survival rate”. According to research from Imperial College London, however, the chance of dying after catching Covid-19 is about 1% in high income countries. That's more than 30 times as deadly as the false figure being shared online.5

The dangerous nature of online forums stems from innate, human behavioural biases. As forum members seek information that confirms their existing beliefs, groups tend to form strong “echo-chambers”, where misinformation multiplies through a series of self-reinforcing feedback loops.6 In 2020, the World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared “an infodemic”, adding that fake news “spreads faster and more easily than this virus”.7

Tech companies play a large role in reducing the spread of fake news around the Covid-19 vaccine. There is mounting pressure on social media companies such as Facebook and TikTok to remove harmful anti vaccine misinformation.8 In October 2020, Facebook banned adverts discouraging users from receiving vaccines9 and in November 2020, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube joined forces with fact-checkers, governments and researchers in an effort to tackle the misinformation.10

Tackling the spread of fake news by targeting tech companies does not come without problems. Social media companies began with the proposition of being neutral entities that enabled users to express themselves freely.11 With the growing power and social influence of these companies, however, questions have been raised over whether this power should be exercised more responsibly. A balance needs to be found between the once celebrated freedom of the platforms these companies provide, and the companies themselves taking responsibility of the content and moderating it where necessary,12 to ensure that social media continues to benefit and not harm society.

By Henrietta Buchanan.

Bibliography

France, Anti-Vaxxers and Big Tech - Henrietta Buchanan

[1] Cecile Guerin, ‘France’s anti-vaxxers show deepening distrust of elites’, Financial Times, (January 2021), <https://www.ft.com/content/1157896c-8817-4d3c-a63c-e59f2752aaac> [accessed 13 January 2021]

2 Cecile Guerin, ‘France’s anti-vaxxers show deepening distrust of elites’, Financial Times, (January 2021), <https://www.ft.com/content/1157896c-8817-4d3c-a63c-e59f2752aaac> [accessed 13 January 2021

3 Cecile Guerin, ‘France’s anti-vaxxers show deepening distrust of elites’, Financial Times, (January 2021), <https://www.ft.com/content/1157896c-8817-4d3c-a63c-e59f2752aaac> [accessed 13 January 2021

4 Alexander Morgan, ‘What is the truth behind the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory?’, Euro News, (May 2020), <https://www.euronews.com/2020/05/15/what-is-the-truth-behind-the-5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-culture-clash> [accessed 13 January 2021]

5 Alistair Coleman, ‘Claims of 99.97% survival rate are not true’, BBC News, (January 2021), <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cjxv13v27dyt/fake-news> [accessed 13 January 2021]

6 David Robert Grimes, ‘Echo chambers are dangerous – we must try to break free of our online bubbles’, The Guardian, (December 2017), <https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/dec/04/echo-chambers-are-dangerous-we-must-try-to-break-free-of-our-online-bubbles> [accessed 14 January 2021]

7 Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan and Hannah Murphey, ‘Facebook vows to remove false claims about Covid-19 vaccines’, Financial Times, (December 2020), <https://www.ft.com/content/2fc9e693-790a-40ab-8ac2-0aafd59ef515> [accessed 14 January]

8 Cecile Guerin, ‘France’s anti-vaxxers show deepening distrust of elites’, Financial Times, (January 2021), <https://www.ft.com/content/1157896c-8817-4d3c-a63c-e59f2752aaac> [accessed 13 January 2021

9 Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan and Hannah Murphey, ‘Facebook vows to remove false claims about Covid-19 vaccines’, Financial Times, (December 2020), <https://www.ft.com/content/2fc9e693-790a-40ab-8ac2-0aafd59ef515> [accessed 14 January]

10 Rory Cellan-Jones, ‘YouTube, Facebook and Twitter align to fight Covid vaccine conspiracies’, BBC News, (November 2020), <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55005385> [accessed 14 January 2021]

11 Jesse Hirsh, ‘Why Social Platforms Are Taking Some Responsibility for Content’, Centre for International Governance Innovation, (September 2019), <https://www.cigionline.org/articles/why-social-platforms-are-taking-some-responsibility-content> [accessed 14 January 2021]

[1]2 Jesse Hirsh, ‘Why Social Platforms Are Taking Some Responsibility for Content’, Centre for International Governance Innovation, (September 2019), <https://www.cigionline.org/articles/why-social-platforms-are-taking-some-responsibility-content> [accessed 14 January 2021]