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We’re nearing 2022. And if there’s anything the past couple of years have shown us, it’s that not only does time fly in a pandemic — so does false information.
These days, false but compelling stories can be just as deadly as a viral disease. In fact, in the first three months of 2020 alone, COVID-19 misinformation sent some 6,000 people to the hospital, and at least 800 of them to their deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) has even come up with a name for the particularly dangerous brand of misinformation that’s infected our screens and radio waves: it’s become an infodemic.
Nearly two years later, we’re still very much in the middle of a pandemic and infodemic, with new variants like Omicron fuelling fake claims, both old and new. In the fight against COVID-19 misinformation, one platform has been quietly working on keeping its spaces medical misinformation-free — and outworking its peers, too.
According to its latest transparency report, which covers January to June of 2021, Pinterest took down over 9,000 images pinned to their platform about 30,000 times for violating their medical misinformation policy, which bans unsupported health claims like false cures, anti-vaccination advice, and fake safety emergencies. The image sharing and social media service also took down dozens of accounts and over 900 boards for violating this policy.
Many of these posts were deleted automatically, with the goal of curbing the spread of false information on the platform. They’ve been pretty successful at it, too — with 7 out of 10 deleted posts never making it to other users’ feeds.
Though not as big or as talked about as the likes of Facebook or TikTok, Pinterest has seen steady growth over the years, and is home to a monthly active user base of 444 million. This means that it holds some significant influence of its own, and its efforts in curbing the infodemic shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Its zero-tolerance policy for health and, more specifically, vaccine, misinformation shows how it’s become so much more than just a place to look up clothing trends or make mood boards (though those are great, too). Today, it’s become a leader in fighting back the tide of fake news — and offers some key lessons other platforms should definitely take notes on.
Pinning Fake News
It’s important to note that Pinterest wasn’t always the fake news fighting badass that it is today.
In 2015, for instance, researchers from the Virginia Commonwealth University found that vaccine misinformation was rampant on Pinterest, where posts were overwhelmingly negative about the life-saving scientific marvel of vaccines.
A follow-up study, published in 2018, found that anti-vaccine pins were actively sowing distrust in health institutions and medical professionals. What’s more, the absence of fact-checking and responses from these same institutions on the platform helped fan the flames of fear and blame started by these pins.
These studies prompted the platform to update its community guidelines to include a ban on the “promotion of false cures for terminal or chronic illnesses and anti-vaccination advice.” This clear policy change paved the way for a holistic, structured response to anti-vaccine propaganda.
Here’s what they’re doing right.
Moving Quickly and Decisively
As early as 2019 — a time when many of us were blissfully unaware of words like ‘coronavirus’ — Pinterest was actively working to counter anti-vaccination advice. In the face of measles outbreaks in the US, Europe, and Asia, the company had worked to ban prominent anti-vaccine groups and block Pinterest users from pinning content from anti-vaccine websites to their platform.
Ifeoma Ozoma, then Pinterest’s public policy and social impact manager who had previously worked to ban plantation weddings on the platform, explained that hundreds of URLs and hundreds of thousands of pins were removed under the new policy.
Recognizing the steadily growing tide of vaccine misinformation, the platform went a step further: They broke their own search function. Now, when you type in “vaccine” on the Pinterest search bar, here’s what you get:
This move seems radical, considering that most other platforms have barely raised a pinky. For example, Facebook reduced the reach of groups and pages that spread verifiable vaccine hoaxes, but still plays host to those same groups and pages. YouTube, meanwhile, began including an information box underneath vaccine videos with a link to a Wikipedia article.
But for Ozoma, having a stricter stance is the right thing to do.
“We think there is a responsibility for us and other platforms to do more than just include a link to legitimate information,” she told The Guardian in 2019. “There’s content coming from other sites that we’re not able to detect as easily … because it’s not actually being blocked or removed by other platforms. They’re adding labels or more legitimate information, but not actually removing it.”
Coordinating With the Experts
In an interview with NPR that same year, Ozoma also pointed out that the platform’s goal for rolling out these new policies is first and foremost about reducing harm. That’s why the search results for terms like “vaccine” ask users to contact a healthcare provider for medical advice.
“Because we’re humble about our limitations and our own expertise here, we look to outside experts like the WHO, CDC, and the American Academy of Pediatrics and their guidance on what’s harmful,” she said back then.
And they’ve been following through on that. Since last year, Pinterest users who search for “COVID-19” and related terms are shown primarily those Pinterest boards that are maintained by the WHO.
This is part of their 2021 commitment to amplify medical voices on the platform, perhaps as a response to the 2018 study that found that anti-vaxxers were too loud — and more crucially, experts too quiet — on the platform.
They’ve also committed to partnering with medical organizations, and particularly those that serve Black, indigenous and Hispanic communities, who are disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The platform is offering support in the form of paid media and creative resources for these organizations, alongside the paid media it’s provided to the AdCouncil’s “It’s Up to You” campaign.
These measures aren’t static. Sarah Bromma, the company’s head of policy, has said that the platform’s approach is designed to adjust in line with pandemic developments and evolving guidance from organizations like the WHO and the CDC.
Being Transparent About Their Guidelines
Pinterest has won itself some fans — me included — for the measures above. But there have been some critics, calling the platform moderation policies “a secretive process with no real appeal” that keep people from finding the information they need.
For Ozoma, the description is simply untrue. “They’re clear in our community guidelines on our website,” she pointed out.
These, of course, are linked when you get the blank search results for terms like “vaccine,” which also has links to health content from experts. The guidelines are also written in clear, easy-to-understand English — unlike the lengthy terms and conditions many of us agree to without even attempting to read.
If your post is taken down by the platform, there is also an appeals process to have your content reinstated if you feel that it doesn’t violate those guidelines. The number of appeals received, and the reinstatements borne from them, are also included in the company’s biannual transparency report, which they began publishing back in 2013.
Not Pandering for Profit
For Pinterest, the anti-misinformation efforts are grounded on the platform’s mission statement: “to help people discover the things they love, and inspire them to go do those things in their daily lives.”
On the issue of fake news, Bromma puts it simply: “There’s nothing inspiring about harmful misinformation that might affect your health or your family’s health or your community’s health.”
This is why the boards and websites the company has banned from its platform since 2019 include those of prominent anti-vaccine propagandists, like Larry Cook. Cook runs the website StopMandatoryVaccinations.com, and if someone wants to pin its contents onto Pinterest, they get an error message.
Here, I’d like to highlight Facebook’s mission statement: “To give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” This emphasis on connecting people — whether that’s in a positive or negative way — is a small detail that spells all the difference, I think, between a solid stance against misinformation and a wishy-washy one.
This difference is particularly crucial as social media has given us new ways to make popularity lucrative. For example, the UK-based nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate has raised the alarm on what they call “anti-vaccination entrepreneurs” like Cook who profit off of vaccine misinformation from millions of people on Facebook, with an audience of some 28 million people.
Worse still, Facebook profits from them, too. The Facebook group attached to Cook’s anti-vaccination website, for instance, once had as many as 360,000 members before it was shut down in November 2020.
This was after researchers found out that Cook was one of the biggest sources of funding for anti-vaccination ads on Facebook. With each ad costing up to $499, these ads could reach as many as 50,000 people each to spread vaccine disinformation and link people to “alternative” remedies.
Earlier this year, it was found that Facebook is still making money from vaccine disinformation. Overall, the Center for Countering Digital Hate report found that for social media giants, anti-vaccination groups represent a dizzying $1.1 billion in annual revenue.
By implementing a no-nonsense medical misinformation policy, Pinterest gives up some of this potential for virality and profit. But when you consider all the lives lost to medical misinformation, then I’d like to think it’s more than worth it. I just hope other platforms begin to think this way, too.
Towards a Safer Internet
All that said, it’s important to note that Pinterest is far from perfect. For example, a 2021 study found that the platform still plays host to misinformation about cancer. In 2017, Pinterest acknowledged that Russian propaganda had found its way to the platform, too.
Moreover, Ozoma herself has since left the company because of discrimination, racism, and sexism within its ranks — a problem that, unfortunately, remains to be all too common in the tech industry and is one that we must continue to fight.
But in the realm of medical misinformation and, more specifically, the fight against anti-vaccine propaganda, Pinterest is doing a lot more than social media platforms with bigger footprints. While their efforts seem remarkable now, we need to fight for a social media landscape where they can be seen as the bare minimum, because really, that’s what these measures are.
The platform has shown that a clear policy, a dedicated team, and a flexible approach that lets them adjust to developing situations can be an effective way to protect millions from harmful medical misinformation. And with a new variant — whose transmissibility, severity, and ability to evade vaccines are all still up in the air — on the rise, it’s not a time for lukewarm efforts.
The problem of misinformation and disinformation, along with the shadow industries they have given rise to, is global, complex, and multifaceted. Pinterest simply can’t fight it alone.
Fact From Fiction is a biweekly column on misinformation and disinformation around the world.
