Anti-vaccine disinformation greatest risk to Covid-19 jab, MP warns

2 December 2020, 18:45 | Updated: 3 December 2020, 11:20

Social media apps
Anti-vaccine disinformation greatest risk to Covid-19 jab, MP warns. Picture: PA

Damian Collins suggested there should be international rules to keep an eye on how tech giants ‘behave’.

Anti-vaccine disinformation is one of the greatest risks to our way out of the global pandemic, a British MP has warned international lawmakers.

Former DCMS Select Committee chair Damian Collins said that those spreading falsehoods about a vaccine represent “one of the clearest examples of real-world harms that fake news can cause”.

His comments to the International Grand Committee on Disinformation came as the UK became the first country in the world to approve a jab from Pfizer and BioNTech.​

The MP for Folkestone and Hythe drew upon a recent study by campaign group Avaaz, which found the top 10 websites spreading health disinformation on Facebook have almost four times as many estimated views as content shared from the website of the world’s 10 leading health institutions.

“Here Facebook’s own algorithms are pushing anti-vaxx content over authentic health information,” he said.

“The impact of this is declining trust in the vaccine.”

Speaking more widely about imminent regulation, Mr Collins said it is “time for the tech sector to catch up” and that it should not be up to tech bosses such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to decide which content should be allowed on social networks.

He also suggested there be international rules to keep an eye on how tech giants “behave”.

Damian Collins MP
Damian Collins took aim at Facebook as the International Grand Committee convened virtually (PA)

“It shouldn’t be left to people like Mark Zuckerberg to determine when Instagram should remove images that could lead teenagers to self-harm, how quickly a company should respond to a terrorist attack being broadcast on Facebook Live or whether it’s okay for Steve Bannon to call for the beheading of public servants on his Facebook page,” the MP said.

“Facebook says it removes 95% of harmful content before anyone reports it but there has never been any independent scrutiny of that and they frequently deny academic researchers the opportunity to do so.

“There needs to be external auditing of how effectively they remove harmful content.

He added: “We should remember too that the real harm we are regulating here has not been caused by people crossing the line between freedom of speech and the harm that speech can cause others.

“(It’s) a business model that makes money by amplifying content based on engagement regardless of whether it is harmful or not.

“Freedom of reach is not the same as freedom of speech.”

Mr Collins is one of the founding members of the International Grand Committee, a group of cross-party elected representatives from around the world that scrutinises efforts by social media to combat harmful content, hate speech and electoral interference online.

Lord David Puttnam and Baroness Beeban Kidron, from the House of Lords Select Committee on Digital Technologies and Democracy, were also in attendance virtually, alongside lawmakers from other countries including the US, Canada, India, and Singapore.

“One of the greatest risks to the success of this programme is anti-vaccine disinformation warning people not to take it,” Mr Collins explained.

“I think it is really important that there are some international rules around the way companies behave. They are global companies.

“The local legislation may be different in different countries around the world, but the standards we should expect them to work to I think should be consistent.

He added: “In financial services we created those sorts of international frameworks… I think it’s really important there is something like that for the tech sector.

“(That way) we’ve got good laws in our own countries but also those companies know they can’t get away with allowing things to happen in other parts of the world where maybe the regulations aren’t as tight.”

By Press Association

More Technology News

See more More Technology News

Openreach van

Upgrade to Openreach ultrafast full fibre broadband ‘could deliver £66bn boost’

Laptop with a virus warning on the screen

Nato countries are in a ‘hidden cyber war’ with Russia, says Liz Kendall

Pat McFadden

Russia prepared to launch cyber attacks on UK, minister to warn

A person holds an iphone showing the app for Google chrome search engine

Apple and Google ‘should face investigation over mobile browser duopoly’

A Google icon on a smartphone

Firms can use AI to help offset Budget tax hikes, says Google UK boss

Icons of social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp, are displayed on a mobile phone screen

Growing social media app vows to shake up ‘toxic’ status quo

Will Guyatt questions who is responsible for the safety of children online

Are Zuckerberg and Musk responsible for looking after my kids online?

Social media apps on a phone

U16s social media ban punishes children for tech firm failures, charities say

Google shown on a smartphone

US Government proposes forcing Google to sell Chrome to break-up tech empire

The logo for Google's Gemini AI assistant

Google’s Gemini AI gets dedicated iPhone app in the UK for the first time

Facebook stock

EU fines Meta £660m for competition rule breaches over Facebook Marketplace

A phone taking a photo of a phone mast

Government pledges more digital inclusion as rural Wales gets phone mast boost

Social media apps displayed on a mobile phone screen

What is Bluesky and why are people leaving X to sign up?

Someone types at a keyboard

Cyber security chief warns Black Friday shoppers to be alert to scams

MPs

Ministers pressed on excluding Chinese firms from UK’s genomics sector

Child with mobile phone stock

Specially designed smartphone for children launches in the UK