Report blames 12 people for misinformation about the epidemic

A group of 12 people is responsible for most of the misinformation and conspiracy theories spread during and around the pandemic.

The conclusion came in the report of the British NGO CCDH (Center for Combating Digital Hate, its English acronym), released on Friday, 16.

Among the 12 doctors who espoused pseudoscience principles are a bodybuilder, health blogger, religious fanatic, and Robert Kennedy Jr – the nephew of John F. Kennedy, the former US president.

Together, the characters have more than 59 million followers on various social media platforms. However, it is Facebook that makes the biggest impact. Just over 73% of all anti-vaccine content broadcast in the US has passed through the platform – and 95% of the reported inaccurate information has yet to be removed.

At least 65% of the 812,000 publications analyzed by the organization resulted in misinformation. Kennedy, for example, was removed from Instagram, but not from Facebook.

And platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google, according to the director of the Department of Combating Desertification, Imran Ahmed, were “particularly ineffective” in removing inaccurate information despite their implementation of policies to prevent the spread of false news.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday that Washington is already pressing Facebook to remove 12 people named in the report. “They’re killing people,” said US President Joe Biden, when asked about it by the Washington Post.