Doctors Spreading Misinformation, Tech Millionaires Spreading Misinformation and Facebook Down! Inoculated Newsletter (07.10.2021)

📰News of the week:

1. The AP reports that a constant barrage of misinformation has Idaho health care workers facing increased animosity .
2. NYT: Facebook hearing strengthens calls for regulation in Europe.
3. Buzzfeed: Doctors are attacking COVID vaccines and promoting bogus cures — and getting away with it.
4. Coda Story:  French doctors are are attacking COVID vaccines and promoting bogus cures.
5. Media Matters found that at least 50 YouTube videos featuring newly banned anti-vax influencers remain on the platform.
6. Poynter fact checks the claim that millions of people have died from the COVID-19 vaccine. (Ruling: false!).
7. The Sword and The Sandwich newsletter on the dual hypotheses underpinning Christian anti-vaxx sentiment: the vaccine is full of secret microchips, and that it’s the mark of the beast.
8. MedPage Today: Better to "pre-bunk" misinformation sooner rather than later, experts say.
9. CNN perspective: Anti-vaxxers are using the same tactics as cults to attract followers on social media.

✔️ Opinion of the week:

New York Times asks how Facebook can be reformed.

📝 Longform of the week:

The Largest Autocracy on Earth

Facebook is acting like a hostile foreign power; it’s time we treated it that way.

The AtlanticAdrienne LaFrance

🚶Profile of the week:

This tech millionaire went from covid trial funder to misinformation superspreader

After boosting unproven covid drugs and campaigning against vaccines, Steve Kirsch was abandoned by his team of scientific advisers—and left out of a job.

MIT Technology ReviewCat Ferguson

⬆️ Re-up of the week:

How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation

The company’s AI algorithms gave it an insatiable habit for lies and hate speech. Now the man who built them can’t fix the problem.

MIT Technology ReviewKaren Hao

🔬Research of the week:

Negative news dominates fast and slow brain responses and social judgments even after source credibility evaluation

Remedies to counter the impact of misinformation are in high demand, but little is known about the neuro-cognitive consequences of untrustworthy infor…

ScienceDirectJuliaBaumab

Deep in the Data Void: China’s COVID-19 Disinformation Dominates Search Engine Results

Since the earliest days of the pandemic, Chinese state officials and media outlets have disseminated conspiracy narratives claiming that COVID-19 originated at Fort Detrick—a U.S. army research facility in Maryland that has been the target of disinformation campaigns for more than four decades. But…

Alliance For Securing DemocracyElen Aghekyan

📲Tweets of the week:

That's it for this week. Is there a story we should add to next week's newsletter? Someone we should interview on our podcast? Ping us!