US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has issued warning of the risks posed well being misinformation, calling it an “urgent threat” that social media firms and know-how platforms must do extra to deal with.

As The New York Times , it’s a relatively uncommon step for the workplace of the Surgeon General, which generally points advisories centered round particular well being issues just like the opioid epidemic. In a press launch, the Surgeon General mentioned that “health misinformation has already caused significant harm” and undermined vaccination efforts.

The advisory features a on steps that people, well being organizations, researchers and journalists can take to assist mitigate the unfold of misinformation. Notably, it additionally calls out social media firms, although it stops in need of calling any of the platforms out by identify. But the report echoes a lot of the criticism that platforms like Facebook and Twitter have confronted in the course of the pandemic.

“Product features built into technology platforms have contributed to the spread of misinformation, the report states. “For example, social media platforms incentivize people to share content to get likes, comments, and other positive signals of engagement. These features help connect and inform people but reward engagement rather than accuracy, allowing emotionally charged misinformation to spread more easily than emotionally neutral content.”

The report additionally highlights the issue of algorithmic amplification, which may make it troublesome for firms like Facebook to stop misinformation from .

“Algorithms that determine what users see online often prioritize content based on its popularity or similarity to previously seen content,” the report says. “As a result, a user exposed to misinformation once could see more and more of it over time, further reinforcing one’s misunderstanding. Some websites also combine different kinds of information, such as news, ads, and posts from users, into a single feed, which can leave consumers confused about the underlying source of any given piece of content.”

The report additionally recommends that firms “prioritize early detection of misinformation ‘super-spreaders’ and repeat offenders.” A broadly cited report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate discovered greater than half of anti-vaccine misinformation on-line may be linked to simply . On Thursday, White House Press Secretary additionally referenced that very same report, noting that many of those “super-spreaders” stay energetic on Facebook.