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'It Took 10 Seconds For Instagram To Push Me Into an Anti-Vaxx Rabbit Hole' (vice.com)
eatmorekix quotes Vice: It only took around ten seconds. On Wednesday, I created a fresh Instagram account, and followed 'Beware the Needle', a user with 34,000 followers which posts a steady stream of anti-vaccination content. I also followed the user's "backup" account mentioned in its bio, the creator clearly aware that Instagram may soon ban them. Instagram's "Suggested for You" feature then recommended I follow other accounts, including "Vaccines are Genocide" and "Vaccine Truth." I followed the latter, and checked which accounts Instagram now thought would be a good fit for me: another 24 accounts that were either explicitly against vaccinations in their profile description, or that posted anti-vaccine content.
They included pseudo-scientists claiming that vaccines cause autism; accounts with tens of thousands of followers promising the "truth" around vaccinations through memes and images of misleading statistics, as well as individual mothers spouting the perceived, but false, dangers of vaccinating children against measles, polio, and other diseases.
"Instagram told Motherboard it will be looking at different ways to minimize these sorts of recommendations," the article reports, but "did not give a more specific timeframe for this change...."
"For the moment, however, Instagram remains a hot bed of easy to discover misinformation on vaccinations."
They included pseudo-scientists claiming that vaccines cause autism; accounts with tens of thousands of followers promising the "truth" around vaccinations through memes and images of misleading statistics, as well as individual mothers spouting the perceived, but false, dangers of vaccinating children against measles, polio, and other diseases.
"Instagram told Motherboard it will be looking at different ways to minimize these sorts of recommendations," the article reports, but "did not give a more specific timeframe for this change...."
"For the moment, however, Instagram remains a hot bed of easy to discover misinformation on vaccinations."
It's endemic.
I'm sorry, it sounds like you deliberately went to this site for the sole purpose of finding this information yourself, so you could report on it for your publication.
Am I missing something?
You mean "you may also like" worked? After they spent millions of dollars on it? Shut up.
I was watching a video about the dismantling of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant and then one about Sellafield and then YouTube started recommending a bunch of related videos. :D
And I know this is what happens, so I am leary about watching a conspiracy theory video or an anti-vax video just to laugh at them because I YouTube then will start recommending more of that bullshit instantly.
L'Idiot
So... You followed an Anti-vax user, and surprise surprise other anti-vax content was promoted to you...
That seems working as intended to me...
Instagram's recommendations were consistent with the interests expressed. I fail to see what the problem is here.
This may not be "fake news", but it is garbage.
Too bad these sites don't provide preferential recommendations/promotions to accounts and posts that contain links to PubMed articles. If they're going to use these algorithms, they could certainly promote accounts that link to the original publication even if those accounts promote a conspiracy theory, that the research was real and is being suppressed, etc.
That would at least get actual scientific research reports out front. If you can find anti-vax peer-reviewed research on PubMed, you go right ahead and link/share it. If you can't find it there because it's "being suppressed", find (and let the sites promote) any other sites that publish experimental research in any kind of refereed journal. It would hopefully get this information more in the open and at least cursorily examined for reputability and accuracy by people on the fence.
It's showing adults what they ask to be shown. You told Instagram to show you Antivaxx content and it did show you antivaxx content. If it had told you "welcome to Instagram, check out these antivaxxers", then there would have been a problem.
If you live in the EU, just have a look at for example this recent mainstream media broadcast from "Arte", a state-funded French-German channel: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/... (watch starting from position 01:05:03).
Anti vaccination propaganda is obviously not limited to the underbelly of the Internet.
Surely you didn't expect it to recommend stuff you hadn't indicated an interest in. You expressed an interest, quite intentionally in antivaxx stuff and you got it. Then you came here to tell us about it. No, I won't click on your link.
If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
It Took 10 Seconds For Instagram To Push Me Into An Anti-Vaxx Rabbit Hole
Being against pregnancy tests and good luck charms I can understand, but rabbits are against vaccines now? Feh... dumb bunnies.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
Thanks for the helpful info A/C.
I find your post has too few CAPS ONLY BITS and not enough reference to autism. Please try harder.
The headline should simply be "Instagram recommended I follow other anti-vaxx accounts after I followed one".
Everyone would simply say "so? why is that surprising" and then the story would not get much attention.
The meant of the story is still that Instagram are trying to do stop recommending these accounts, but that they haven't gotten a handle on it yet.
I don't understand your critics about the movie.
There is no anti vaccination propaganda in the movie. Only a few true experts pointing out problems. And such problems indeed should be tackled as we know about them since 20 years, e.g. giving multiple vaccines at the same time to toddlers!
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
The headline should simply be "Instagram recommended I follow other anti-vaxx accounts after I followed one".
You don't even have to subscribe or add to favorites with Youtube. If you watch any sort of sketchy video while logged in, similar content will forever be part of your suggestions. Not surprising Instagram is the same.
I've just become careful what I watch, ever, so as to not contaminate my profile with perpetual bullshit.
Search.
Read.
Comment.
Link.
Share.
Publish.
With no gov, brand, NGO, think tank, Communist party, mil, cult, faith saying what is sinful.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Pretty much, yes. At its core this is following ONE account, then being recommended accounts that have interacted a lot with that account, and then being recommended accounts that have interacted a lot with those.
Instagram is not this massive omniscient AI that actually understands what is written on the accounts. Nor is Facebook. Nor is Youtube. It is just a collection of "People who liked this also liked ..."
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
The issue here is not telling people they aren't "allowed to be interested in something," the issue is about which messages particular social media companies should endorse via their recommendations. There's a gulf of difference between actively censoring arguably unsavoury messages, and guiding viewers eyes towards them.
If you are providing search results, what turns up should* be on the person searching. When you recommend something, you wear that recommendation. [*the commercial interests of the search providers notwithstanding].
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
Early epidemiologic studies were inadequate in demonstrating an increase in cancer incidence associated with contaminated vaccine. Recently, investigators have provided persuasive evidence that SV40 is present in human ependymomas, choroid plexus tumors, bone tumors, and mesotheliomas, however, the etiologic role of the virus in tumorigenesis has not been established.
Don't you think that's a bit dishonest if you leave out the first part.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
The guy started a new account and immediately followed two anti-vaxx posters. What the fuck did he expect would happen?
Sounds like he dived into the rabbit hole, no pushing involved. If you are stupid enough to request anti vaxxer information why be surprised when you are provided it.
Exactly the article I'd expect from Vice. "HOW DARE THIS WEBSITE SUGGEST MORE CONTENT OF THE EXACT SAME TYPE THE USER IS ALREADY SEEKING OUT ON THEIR OWN!?" This is simply Vice and their ilk trying to normalize the practice of active thought-policing by social media companies and big tech. Plucking the low-hanging fruit simply establishes a precedent that can then be turned against any thought they don't agree with.
Nobody "falls down" an anti-vax rabbit hole. Anyone stupid enough to seek it out actively is stupid enough to believe any dumb shit they're told. The people who write this trash honestly, truly believe that common people are all stupid sheep who believe what they're told to believe, and don't want social media - or anything else - competing with their position as media outlets in exercising that supposed control.
What if they asked you if you wanted a cherry red car because that morning you watched a porn video with a cherry red car in it?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The RESEARCH on your own means listening to other talking heads with their own financial interests, like books and web sites, in hopes you will put your child at risk so they can earn about the same money from you as evil BIG PHARMA.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Hollywood brainlet parents form a curious cluster of families with autistic children. It is believed to be a result of a hyper focus on autistic testing and parental expectation being satisfied from looking for it.
So I wonder if the chance of autism in a child is doubled if both are Hollywood stars.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
For me, eBay made the most interesting "deduction" about my interests.
I happened to be looking at silverware because for some reason I fancied buying some silver knives, until I realised how much they cost. From there I was led into silver coins, and saw a few I thought would look good in my display cabinet, so I decided to 'watch' the auctions. One of the coins happened to be German in origin, from the year 1939. The others were British; silver sixpences and suchlike.
But a few days later, I received an e-mail from eBay that said something along the lines of "Joe, here's our latest Nazi Memorabilia just for you!"
I just couldn't believe how quickly it had escalated. I half expected Simon Wiesenthal to turn up at my door...
The American education system failed because it teaches the wrong things. What is being pushed is rote-learning and regurgitation. You're not only not required to think for yourself, actually questioning and demanding further proof is frowned upon because (elementary) teachers are usually no smarter than the book they have at their disposal and are more interested in instilling their pupils with the idea that following authority is a wanted trait and questioning is anathema.
Since they also don't teach how to discriminate between information and bullshit (well, if people could, religion wouldn't be a thing anymore), what happens when people do actually start to "question authority" is about the worst that could happen. Because they don't question authority, they reject it. And since all they ever learned was to believe what they are told, their train of thought is "I don't want A to be true, so I will believe B instead". And without the ability to tell information from bullshit, they basically have no way to tell when they're being told bullshit and will believe it. Because it's not what "teh man" tells them, so it must be true.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
There are great scientific reasons to be sceptical of vaccines. I won't bother listing them here because you brain-dead folks are too lazy to RESEARCH on your own
It's so interesting that the anti-vaxxers claim there is a mountain of scientific evidence.....that they can not describe. Almost like there really isn't such evidence, until you're so deep into anti-vaxx mythology that your critical thinking abilities have been disabled.
In other words: "It's out there, but I'm not gonna tell you about it until you are a believer in the cult"
SV40 continues to cause infections in the human population today.
Sure, but it doesn't continue to contaminate vaccines today. And the incident led to a lot more safety procedures and testing so it's unlikely to happen again.
Statistically, children with a higher IQ have parents with a higher IQ. Parents with a higher IQ are less likely to be too stupid to vaccinate. Children of parents with higher IQ have a higher chance of autism. You don't know the difference between correlation and causation.
Before having the ability to vaccinate, we had countless outbreaks of (insert your own disease). WITH the vaccinations, we HAD a marked decline in said diseases....that was until a couple of things happened. We've allowed so many ILLEGAL aliens into the USA, who have been spreading disease, because of the anti-vax types. In the 1800's is was COMMON (and should be) that anyone trying to enter the USA, was TURNED BACK if they had a disease.
Worse, there's a history of food being contaminated. Why don't you just play it safe and stop eating food.
Good luck figuring out which veggies have salmonella. Are you being intentionally dense?