Instagram Is Still A Hotbed Of Anti-Vax Propaganda

The billion-user app is not only hosting — but actively promoting — vaccine conspiracy theories in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

Getting vaccinated against the coronavirus makes your body magnetic, one post warned. Another, citing the “World Hoax Organization,” claimed the COVID-19 vaccines have gone through “fuck all tests for safety and effectiveness.” A third suggested Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci tried to “kill everyone with a Plandemic.” Others pushed similarly baseless nonsense. I came across each of these falsehoods over the past few days while scrolling through Instagram. They weren’t shared by accounts I follow — all appeared in my Explore feed, the algorithmically curated collection of public content that Instagram serves to its users. The app’s recommendation engine is designed to show us whatever kind of content it determines will be most likely to hold our attention, based on our online behavior. Instagram recently encouraged users to think of this system “like a perfect pair of jeans, tailored just for you.” Though it’s disturbing to think that a stream of anti-vax propaganda has been tailored just for me, it may not seem entirely surprising: As a reporter covering online disinformation, I spend a good deal of time looking at conspiratorial content. But Facebook-owned Instagram has for years claimed that it’s working to reduce the spread of anti-vaccine falsehoods across its platform — regardless of the audience — and it’s not only recommending this content to those who seek it out.