“Some of them can be very divisive in terms of increasing mistrust, trying to … amplify the fact that there is an actual debate when there is no debate.”
OTTAWA — Canada’s chief public health officer says the fight against vaccine-related misinformation on social media is being further complicated by the emergence of online bots designed to sow mistrust.
“They are at play, for sure,” Tam said of bots after taking part in a panel discussion about the spread of false information on social-media platforms. Tam warned that bad actors online can be very effective at planting doubts in the minds of parents, and she stressed that any parent is potentially susceptible.
“What we know is that people who outright refuse vaccines are a very small group,” she said. “But we might be talking about a significant percentage of parents that have questions about vaccines — and we need to answer them. We need to give them the scientifically based, credible answer.
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