On social networks, an unequal battle against misinformation

“Shut up, killer!” »: Dr. from Booba on X (ex-Twitter). This was a response to Jerome Barrier’s scientific arguments that the established link between the Covid vaccine and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was not based “on any scientific data”.

On the one hand, the star, who has 6.3 million followers, is affectionately referred to as the “little brother” by Didier Raoult, whose opinions he expresses. On the other hand, an oncologist practicing near Nice was insulted and threatened by fans of the rapper. On the crusade against “free” fake news from 2020, in his “free time”, he explained to Express, a few days after the publication of a column in the same newspaper.

In the text, the White Coats condemn those who want to “sow confusion and fear among the general public”, especially on vaccination, and call for the “health camp to be protected against any kind of obfuscation”.

Among the signatories is Mathieu Mollimard, president of the French Society of Pharmacology, who

Online threats

Like most “white knights” of medical information, Professor Mollimard began to leave the comfort of institutional communication in March 2020: “Our goal as a learned society was to communicate what we knew”. On the SFPT website then on Twitter, it publishes “Pharmacovigilance facts, especially on hydroxychloroquine”.

In return, he receives hateful messages such as this anonymous threat to X: “Be careful on your way back home, scum of humanity”. “Indeed it is worrying, it is a problem of lack of regulation of social networks”, he responded, “but we do not have the right to remain silent”. He advocates a certain distance from “haters” and regrets the misuse of language by certain colleagues, ensuring for his part that he “didn’t make the slightest insult about X”.

The Covid crisis has pushed doctors into the digital realm, confirms sociologist Laurent Cordonnier, specialist in medical disinformation: “For the first time, we are witnessing the creation of a scientific consensus, a debate in which the general public does not normally participate”.

Enlighten the silent majority

Amid widespread concern, this “debate”, according to the researcher, has been “crystallized by iconic figures” such as Didier Raoult, a long-time opponent of infectious disease expert Karin Lacombe in particular. Personal attacks have increased and, “what researchers have been surprised by is the loss of authority,” he adds.

But in a study for the Descartes Foundation, Laurent Cordonnier observed that “social network behavior is not representative of the general population, for whom the doctor remains the primary source of medical information”.

Immunologist Steve Pascolo, who develops RNA vaccines, is not afraid to be contradicted: “As a scientist, I am interested in the debate. The problem is when people are not rational,” he asserts, adding, “It’s hard to present arguments in 280 characters on technical topics like RNA.” But he’s hopeful to help enlighten the silent majority, those internet users who read without commenting.