by Eve Lacroix, City University London
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
As many as 81% of cancer cures touted by content creators on TikTok are fake, according to new research from City St George’s, University of London.
The ethnographic study by Dr. Stephanie Alice Baker, reader in sociology, gave TikTok’s algorithm free rein to recommend videos to a user looking for cancer cures. It found that only 19% of monitored videos contained legitimate medical advice.
Gen Z is particularly vulnerable to this cancer misinformation, as TikTok is used as a search engine by younger demographics and is a key means of accessing health information.
Not only is cancer misinformation rife, but the platform allows creators to link to e-commerce stores and websites in which users can purchase harmful products.
TikTokers were able to benefit financially from cancer cure misinformation by selling products including oregano oil, apricot kernels, or dog dewormer (which is unsafe for human consumption).
Furthermore, the cancer misinformation videos can become a gateway to more extreme, conspiratorial content. In the attention economy, content creators are encouraged to post increasingly salacious content, as this is incentivized by the algorithm and the creators stand to gain financially.
Of the 163 videos spreading fake cancer cure claims, 32% used conspiracy theories to legitimize their content. Some videos feature contrarian doctors who give credence to the idea that miracle cures are concealed by the government.
The endless scroll feature of TikTok renders users susceptible to radicalization. Viewers go through a gradual process of socialization by watching increasingly extreme videos recommended by the platform’s algorithm.
To carry out the study, a TikTok account was created in which the user searched for the term “cancer cure” to mimic a user doing their own research, and the platform’s algorithm was then allowed to take over subsequent recommendations.
The top 50 posts that appeared for the search “cancer cure” on TikTok’s “For You” page were collected weekly between April and May 2024 and thematically analyzed.
The videos fell into five types:
- personal anecdotes of cancer survivors
- contrarian doctors discussing miracle cures
- conspiracy theories about corrupt medical institutions
- spiritual videos about the importance of faith to overcome illness
- informative posts selling products
Dr. Baker said, “The sheer amount of misinformation on TikTok related to cancer cures is alarming. Eighty-one percent of fake cures for cancer is staggering and should sound the alarm for online regulators. The fact that TikTok’s algorithm incentivizes content creators to take advantage of vulnerable people is simply unjust. Governments urgently need to place greater pressure on social media giants to better moderate their content.
“Platforms like TikTok represent an existential risk: Not only can they spread misinformation and lead users to harmful products, but the algorithm encourages a process of radicalization.”
The research, entitled “‘Link in bio’: fake cancer cures, radicalization pathways and online harms on TikTok”, is due to be published in The Impact of Misinformation and Disinformation on a Democratic Society. It is currently available on the SocArXiv preprint server.
More information: Stephanie Alice Baker, ‘Link in bio’: fake cancer cures, radicalization pathways and online harms on TikTok, SocArXiv (2024). DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/pqs5e
Provided by City University London
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