Facebook’s Most Viewed Article Contributed To Vaccine Doubt

Share post:

An article titled “A ‘healthy’ doctor died two weeks after getting a COVID-19 vaccine,” suggesting that the COVID-19 vaccine may have been involved in a doctor’s death, was the most viewed link on Facebook in the U.S. in the first three months of 2021.

The article was written by the South Florida Sun Sentinel and republished by the Chicago Tribune.

Fifty-four million U.S. users viewed the post between January and March via the Tribune link.

Crowdtangle, a research tool owned by Facebook, found that the Tribune link was shared by several accounts on the social network, raising ongoing doubts about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Facebook refused to publish the report about the most-viewed posts on its platform from January to March 2021 “because there were key fixes to the system we wanted to make,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone tweeted Saturday, adding that the article showed “just how difficult it is to define misinformation.”

For more information, read the original story in NPR.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Related articles

TikTok fights back with legal challenge against US law forcing divestiture

In a significant legal move, TikTok has initiated a robust challenge against the new legislation signed by President...

Jack Dorsey leaves Bluesky board

Bluesky, the decentralized social network, recently saw the departure of its most prominent backer, Jack Dorsey, from its...

Developer of “Unfollow Everything” sues Meta over control of social feeds

Ethan Zuckerman, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst, has filed a lawsuit against Meta, arguing that...

Meta to face EU investigation over disinformation under Digital Services Act

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is set to undergo a European Union investigation concerning its...

Become a member

New, Relevant Tech Stories. Our article selection is done by industry professionals. Our writers summarize them to give you the key takeaways