Denniss Emily, Lindberg Rebecca
School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia.
School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia.
Health Promot Int. 2025 Mar 5;40(2). doi: 10.1093/heapro/daaf023.
Misinformation has been identified as a major threat to society and public health. Social media significantly contributes to the spread of misinformation and has a global reach. Health misinformation has a range of adverse outcomes, including influencing individuals' decisions (e.g. choosing not to vaccinate), and the erosion of trust in authoritative institutions. There are many interrelated causes of the misinformation problem, including the ability of non-experts to rapidly post information, the influence of bots and social media algorithms. Equally, the global nature of social media, limited commitment for action from social media giants, and rapid technological advancements hamper progress for improving information quality and accuracy in this setting. In short, it is a problem that requires a constellation of synergistic actions aimed at social media users, content creators, companies, and governments. A public health approach to social media-based misinformation that includes tertiary, secondary, and primary prevention may help address immediate impacts, long-term consequences, and root causes of misinformation. Tertiary prevention to 'treat' this problem involves increased monitoring, misinformation debunking, and warning labels on social media posts that are at a high risk of containing misinformation. Secondary prevention strategies include nudging interventions (e.g. prompts about preventing misinformation that appear when sharing content) and education to build media and information literacy. Finally, there is an urgent need for primary prevention, including systems-level changes to address key mechanisms of misinformation and international law to regulate the social media industry. Anything less means misinformation-and its societal consequences-will continue to spread.
错误信息已被视为对社会和公众健康的重大威胁。社交媒体极大地助长了错误信息的传播，且具有全球影响力。健康方面的错误信息会产生一系列不良后果，包括影响个人决策（例如选择不接种疫苗），以及削弱对权威机构的信任。错误信息问题存在许多相互关联的成因，包括非专业人士能够迅速发布信息、机器人程序和社交媒体算法的影响。同样，社交媒体的全球性、社交媒体巨头在行动上的有限投入，以及技术的快速进步，都阻碍了在这种情况下提高信息质量和准确性的进程。简而言之，这是一个需要针对社交媒体用户、内容创作者、公司和政府采取一系列协同行动的问题。一种基于社交媒体错误信息的公共卫生方法，包括三级预防、二级预防和一级预防，可能有助于应对错误信息的直接影响、长期后果以及根本原因。针对这个问题的三级预防措施包括加强监测、揭穿错误信息，以及在极有可能包含错误信息的社交媒体帖子上设置警告标签。二级预防策略包括助推干预措施（例如在分享内容时出现的关于防止错误信息的提示）以及开展教育以培养媒体和信息素养。最后，迫切需要进行一级预防，包括进行系统层面的变革以解决错误信息的关键机制，以及制定国际法来规范社交媒体行业。否则，错误信息及其社会后果将继续蔓延。
