Read Facebook’s PR attempts for what they are, an effort to deflect attention from this great reporting that @_KarenHao has gifted us with. https://t.co/tjEeR7MpWz

— Sheera Frenkel (@sheeraf) March 14, 2021

Repeatedly, and across contexts, researchers are finding that a small number of dedicated disinformers are doing a significant amount of damage to the health of discourse, democracy, and society at large. https://t.co/4bL8OWyHiG

— Kate Starbird (@katestarbird) March 15, 2021

Seems like @Facebook could do something with the 111 accounts responsible for the majority of anti-vaccine disinformation.... and many of us probably know who they are already.... at least name them and label them, right? #VaccinesWork https://t.co/CnvH0bUCUO

— Scott Krugman, MD (@Dr_ScottK) March 14, 2021

It’s real. @Facebook is pushing vaccine misinformation for money. They are willful leading people to death and illness and hampering recovery efforts. https://t.co/hx40AUAopI

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) March 13, 2021

"Herd Immunity" pic.twitter.com/JFBEhOeoa9

— Jürgen "jkr" Kraus (@jkr_on_the_web) March 14, 2021

My inclination has been to think that the extent of the Facebook brainwashing effect is over-hyped. Now, however, my 87-year-old dad and 73-year-old mum are refusing the vaccine 100 percent based on stuff they saw on Facebook, and, um, I have some concerns

— Ashlee Vance (@ashleevance) March 12, 2021

“Covid vaccine victims” is the 10th result when I typed “vaccine” into Instagram right now.

— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) March 14, 2021

Please we need to throw Facebook into the Pacific Ocean https://t.co/x0WSy4SHqN

— Bryan Rice (@bricey16) March 14, 2021

This article is a good reminder that most QAnon conversation really IS driven by a small number of influencers. We don't just focus on them for convenience.

On Q-focused subreddits, for instance, 80% of the content came from 5% of users (see p. 10 below).https://t.co/sGC0y6acXL https://t.co/TDHO7C0jWj

— The Q Origins Project (@QOrigins) March 15, 2021

Very informative thread. Like I said before the manner in which the execs and PR ppl responded also undermines the work that many are trying to do inside the company.

That response alarmed me more than the actual article itself. https://t.co/5QROLorrk3

— Timnit Gebru (@timnitGebru) March 13, 2021

SCOOP: Facebook is going beyond vaccine misinfo to conduct a major DL study of vaccine doubters, new docs show. Finds “substantial harm” from stuff that doesn’t break the rules. Just 111 people are behind the worst comments. https://t.co/J75o6nupzr

— Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin) March 14, 2021

With all the pushback from Facebook against @_KarenHao's recent story, and as one of the editors on the piece, I thought it worth making some observations on the PR strategy Facebook has adopted in response. Other journalists may find this useful. https://t.co/UqsNnR1H6E

— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 13, 2021

A study done by Facebook traced most of the disinformation about the Covid vaccine back to just 111 people, who had links to Qanon. It shows how influential our voices can be, for good and ill. I think Trump is patient zero for Covid denial. #COVIDIOT https://t.co/vRUm7JJtEG

— Grandma Grit ? (@grandmagrit) March 15, 2021

Unreal.
This doesn’t happen because of “free expression.”
It’s a result of algorithms micro-targeting harmful content (and ads) to vulnerable users - providing concentrated amplification without counter speech - tuned for maximum Facebook profits. /1 https://t.co/A1hB5Pdp33 pic.twitter.com/BDsYluvsQf

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) March 14, 2021

They are killing people. One of my patients was diagnosed with COVID, called it a “hoax”, left against medical advice, spread it all over the community for 3 days, then died in our ER....I have never been so angry in my professional life

— Sam (@Sam64754068) March 14, 2021

Internal FB research discussed in this article: "Its early findings suggest that a large amount of content that does not break the rules may be causing harm in certain communities, where it has an echo chamber effect."

Yes.https://t.co/mn2wMLtlwf

— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) March 14, 2021

Never really thought something could be worse for society than 24/7 cable news but Facebook's lapped them twice in the past five years. https://t.co/aF57gEW59z

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) March 14, 2021

These past years I've watched in disgust as former friends and colleagues became radical anti-vaxxers on Facebook and even more on Instagram. Those platforms are optimized to spread mass hysteria at scale

— Capulet Poehner (@CapuletPoehner) March 14, 2021

A Facebook study finds the obvious. https://t.co/dXwv8uZyF9

— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) March 14, 2021

We’re all eager to put COVID-19 behind us, and vaccines are our best bet to get there. So today Mark shared our plan to help bring 50 million people one step closer to getting vaccinated. https://t.co/zqNpabQvHY

— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) March 15, 2021

Facebook leadership always prioritizes policy and communications to protect its profit model and advertising business instead of protecting their user base. ICYMI, this is important context around last week's blockbuster report on related matters. /4 https://t.co/OIQE1WIamv

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) March 14, 2021

“The research effort also discovered early evidence of significant overlap between communities that are skeptical of vaccines and those affiliated with QAnon, a sprawling set of baseless claims that has radicalized its followers...” https://t.co/MFmiKwYCVV

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 14, 2021

Oh, word? Facebook CAN look into the wildfire spread of lies on its platform if it wants to, but just hasn't wanted to until now?

Huh. Didn't see that coming. ? https://t.co/TDHO7C0jWj

— The Q Origins Project (@QOrigins) March 15, 2021

Today, we’re expanding our COVID-19 Information Center to Instagram, adding labels on posts about COVID-19 vaccines to show additional information from @WHO, and making real-time trends in COVID-19 vaccinations available to public officials: https://t.co/cYFXEANlQX pic.twitter.com/MCup0oAima

— Alexandru Voica ? (@alexvoica) March 15, 2021

Yes, no shit, what have I said all along? Grifters. Gadflies. Has-beens. Never-weres. All using disinfo and algorithms to offer the appearance of popularity and consensus where none exists to bring in the joiners

https://t.co/JvPbzgNp5g

— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) March 15, 2021

“Facebook’s data scientists divided their U.S. users, groups, and pages into 638 different population segments

Some of the early findings are notable: Just ?? out of the 638 population segments contained ??% of all vaccine hesitancy content on the platform.” https://t.co/AgTAFrC5vY

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) March 14, 2021

This piece by (former MoJo fellow) @_KarenHao is outstanding as is this thread by @glichfield. Both add to our understanding of how deeply malignant and duplicitous Facebook is. https://t.co/mHDTea2VgW

— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) March 13, 2021

These 2 paragraphs are critical context:
* The world depends on Facebook
* but Facebook cannot be trusted
As regulators and lawmakers have yet to deal with the core. Including US FTC and SEC's pressure/decision to settle for $5+B rather than expose Facebook leadership. /2 pic.twitter.com/16R2Xov65n

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) March 14, 2021

Oh you don’t say...... https://t.co/bzta50Kp8n

— Molly Jong-Fast? (@MollyJongFast) March 14, 2021

"The research effort also discovered early evidence of significant overlap between communities that are skeptical of vaccines and those affiliated with QAnon."https://t.co/rVNBHw66j7

— Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC) March 14, 2021

If you have questions about taking a vaccine, look elsewhere. https://t.co/pF35JC2JY8

— Andy Slavitt @ ??? (@ASlavitt) March 15, 2021

Yet again, Facebook is studying super important stuff all by themselves (Vaccine Hesitancy)

and it's pretty much a black box of unknown implications to our Democracy

We'll find out way too late that Facebook's massive reach is a danger to society.https://t.co/P4RZhDRKzY

— Russell (@RussellSieg) March 14, 2021

I remember when "pushing skepticism" was generally considered to be a good thing, instead of a Scarlett Letter crime. https://t.co/OgkpMFmmc2

— Don Wolt (@tlowdon) March 14, 2021

“Harm from non-violating content may be substantial,” Facebook researchers find with posts expressing vaccine hesitancy.

In how many other areas of Facebook is this true? https://t.co/MFWOJibUx5

— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) March 14, 2021

“in the population segment with the most vaccine hesitancy, just 111 users contributed half of all vaccine hesitant content.” This seems to happen frequently on Facebook: posts from a small # of people have disproportionate effects https://t.co/M4R9XKCPxH

— Shannon Bond (@shannonpareil) March 14, 2021

Given its own internal research, @facebook should put superspreaders of lies & medical misinformation into “epistemic quarantine”; QAnon ties are notable https://t.co/NZfuRJoCbG
limit scale & reach of exposure until people are inoculated with facts from public health authorities https://t.co/apgkQM3LdT pic.twitter.com/v6lzI55MMN

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) March 15, 2021

Massive Facebook study on users’ doubt in vaccines finds a small group appears to play a big role in pushing the skepticism. Internal study finds a QAnon connection and that content that doesn’t break the rules may be causing “substantial” harm. https://t.co/IM8mUpRHme

— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) March 14, 2021

If only everyone had told them https://t.co/x9QkB1lgld

— Richard Lawler (@rjcc) March 14, 2021

catching up on things I missed whilst off sick. Both @_KarenHao ‘s FB reporting and this @glichfield thread are full of vital advice and pointers for young journalists tackling difficult business stories. It is also why resilience and experience in newsrooms is so important https://t.co/C7y3dW6YU9

— emily bell (@emilybell) March 15, 2021

To properly deal with these issues requires new leadership and new biz model: unwinding Facebook's profit model (ubiquitous data collection across our lives in order to maximize profits from an experience feeding users a balance of micro-targeted ads and user content). /3

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) March 14, 2021

This pandemic is a global challenge – and we want to help. Today, @Facebook is announcing a campaign to help bring 50 million people closer to getting vaccinated against Covid. https://t.co/XRkxbalF4R

— nicola mendelsohn (@nicolamen) March 15, 2021

Reporting on Facebook exacts a special toll. The editor of @_KarenHao’s exceptional @techreview piece details the many ways in which the company attempted to railroad its publication https://t.co/32EHFFyRAF

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) March 15, 2021

By working closely with health authorities, we hope to help you get credible information, get vaccinated and come back together safely ❤️

Learn more: https://t.co/ylnDRITZ2o

— Facebook (@Facebook) March 15, 2021

Facebook conducting more internal research they can ignore. https://t.co/dj94CMAGaY

— what is proctoring if not surveillance persevering (@hypervisible) March 14, 2021

Good data point showing vaccine hesitancy is pushed by a tiny group https://t.co/pHfTd5Lr2U

— Paul Colgan (@Colgo) March 15, 2021

It is not a coincidence that one of the most influential anti-vaxxers on Facebook (before he was banned) became a QAnon supporter. There has been an increasing overlap between anti-vaxxers and QAnon supporters. https://t.co/U2pSQ9X60o

— Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC) March 14, 2021

Facebook gave @_KarenHao access to their "responsible AI" team hoping, it seems, for a puff piece.

When she wrote a critical story, FB PR went into high gear–this thread, from her editor @glichfield, explains how FB tried to undermine the reporting. https://t.co/i4cyANvW0x

— Avi Asher-Schapiro (@AASchapiro) March 13, 2021

JUST IN: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook is building a tool to connect people to information about where and when to get a COVID-19 vaccine https://t.co/oeUlWMNs4G

— Axios (@axios) March 15, 2021

A.I. Is Not What You Think - The New York Times

Read more here: https://t.co/qKqseLqYpG#ArtificialIntelligence #AI #DataScience #MachineLearning #BigData #100DaysOfCode #Python #DeepLearning #NLP #Robots #IoT

— Benjamin Peters (@BenjaminP3ters) March 15, 2021

AI Is Not What You Think. #AI #aiandthelaw #aiforgood https://t.co/nGyx5m8BE0

— Nordic AI Artificial Intelligence Institute (@nordicinst) March 15, 2021

#AI. Is Not What You Think@MargaretSiegien @PawlowskiMario @Nicochan33 #futureofwork #IoT #IIoT #ML #NLP #javascript #DataScience #Analytics #Python #Serverless #flutter #100DaysOfCode #DevOps #Bigdata #100DaysOfMLCode #MachineLearning #womenintech https://t.co/QhBMmG2TKT

— Margaret Siegien ? ?? (@MargaretSiegien) March 15, 2021

In today's On Tech:

The wise and good @CadeMetz talks about why 50 years of unfulfilled promise in A.I. is finally getting real, and why computers are (still) dumber than people. https://t.co/SxYe67cKlG

— Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide) March 15, 2021

A.I. Is Not What You Think https://t.co/beUcyrHNLx
via @nytimes #AI #MachineLearning #SelfDrivingCars @SpirosMargaris @Paula_Piccard @Xbond49 @Dahl_Consult @Nicochan33 @mvollmer1 @ipfconline1 @FrRonconi @labordeolivier @DrJDrooghaag @ShiCooks @sallyeaves pic.twitter.com/SOHJf8wTXu

— Jeroen Bartelse (@JeroenBartelse) March 15, 2021

#AI Is Not What You Thinkhttps://t.co/0QbuMjvdUT#SelfDrivingCars #IoT #5G #AutonomousVehicles #selfdriving #autonomous #Robotics #driverless #driverlesscars #startups #startup #Robot #MachineLearning #BigData #SmartCity #Travel #tech #Robots #mobility #Transport #delivery pic.twitter.com/0JhncLrWD6

— guidaautonoma (@guidaautonoma) March 15, 2021

A.I. Is Not What You Think - The New York Times

Read more here: https://t.co/U8XT9Ca6Zm#ArtificialIntelligence #AI #DataScience #100DaysOfCode #Python #MachineLearning #BigData #DeepLearning #NLP #Robots #IoT

— Iain Brown, PhD (@IainLJBrown) March 15, 2021

A.I. Is Not What You Think - The New York Times

Read more here: https://t.co/HZS3T3uwfL#ArtificialIntelligence #AI #DataScience #MachineLearning #BigData #DeepLearning #NLP #Robots #IoT

— Suzanne Coleman (@SuzanneC0leman) March 15, 2021

Facebook finds handful of users spreading COVID vaccine doubts: report https://t.co/gMZJocqThg pic.twitter.com/O4FgSgntXA

— New York Post (@nypost) March 15, 2021

A Facebook study that looked into doubts about the Covid-19 vaccines found "substantial harm" from content that doesn't violate its policies, as well as "significant overlap" between groups that are skeptical of vaccines and those that are linked to QAnon https://t.co/Nyd6Zg7T1C

— First Draft (@firstdraftnews) March 15, 2021

A small wedding worth of people are generating the overwhelming majority of anti-vaxx propaganda. Facebook knows who these people are. But Facebook still refuses to do anything about it. @Facebook is trash https://t.co/0qNuLO0cOf pic.twitter.com/cLIAyewFQo

— Evan Sutton (@3vanSutton) March 15, 2021

"Half of all Republican men say they do not intend to get one of the three federally approved vaccines"https://t.co/BNbosiSXCs

Apt that the group that got us into this predicament is going to keep us in it...

— Peter W. Singer (@peterwsinger) March 15, 2021

Facebook is studying anti-vaccination content on its platform. They found:

✅a small number of anti-vaxxers are responsible for a large % of anti-vax content

✅anti-vaxxers find ways to circumvent the rules

✅large overlap of anti-vax and QAnon https://t.co/0bXexUI1CC

— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 15, 2021

If you have questions about taking a vaccine, look elsewhere. https://t.co/pF35JC2JY8

— Andy Slavitt @ ??? (@ASlavitt) March 15, 2021

Internal FB research discussed in this article: "Its early findings suggest that a large amount of content that does not break the rules may be causing harm in certain communities, where it has an echo chamber effect."

Yes.https://t.co/mn2wMLtlwf

— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) March 14, 2021

The study highlights what disinformation researchers have known for a while: a dedicated minority of users - often pushing content that doesn't outright break vaccine misinformation rules - can cause significant harm. https://t.co/ABzfLiicsN

— Olga Robinson (@O_Rob1nson) March 15, 2021