Conspiracy theorists and influencers dominate a big part of the internet, especially on social media. They often spread misinformation about health. This could lead to a disturbing percentage of especially young internet users who will make decisions in real life that could harm their health. We know examples of cases where vaccines are avoided and alternative medicine is preferred to conventional medicine. This alternative options to regular ones are often presented as reliable and just as or more effective. The cheerful, convincing and hip appearance of influencers and conspiracy thinkers will easily have a major influence on more naive, especially younger internet consumers. In addition, due to the seemingly trustworthy pseudoscientific references that are used to support theories, products, methods and statements, the consumers are easily manipulated. Perhaps not even with wrong intentions but nevertheless wrong.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw an immense explosion of misinformation. Consequentially, distrust in governments, science, politicians and policies arose. We entered a sort of new reality (so to speak) where official data was not taken seriously and to many ignorant people, different kinds of information became equally valid, despite origin. For example, between 2019 and 2023, SARS-CoV-2 has caused more than 600 million cases and more than 6 million deaths (Allen et al., 2023; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.; Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, n.d.; Routhu et al., 2023; World Health Organization, n.d.). These official numbers are evidently convincing, and aside from one's opinion, they are factual and evidence-based in objective terms. We should never follow blindly, and sometimes governments or researchers do make mistakes, but after a while, certain things just become facts. Temporary facts until – after a long process of gaining knowledge by new research that is subjected to rigorous peer review – the contrary will be proven.
One of the main evident challenges is to reach (especially younger) people who are very susceptible to popular alternative ideas that are unproven and information that sounds good but is not reliable. Frequently, this phenomenon occurs on platforms such as TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We must also not assume that people who believe conspiracy theories or alternative medicine are completely irrational or low-educated. Even academics and other people who are very well-educated can fall for the false content on social media or (additional) pseudoscientific publications.
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