Global Health Versus Online Trolls
Advances in global public health in the twenty-first century will depend not only on ground-breaking research and community work, but also on winning the online information battle. Only by acting quickly to defeat social media trolls, can avoidable illnesses and deaths around the world be prevented.
BOSTON – The most frustrating part of my job as a public health scientist is the spread of false information – usually online – that overrides years of empirical research. It is difficult enough for doctors to counter medical falsehoods in face-to-face conversations with patients. It becomes even harder to do so when such fakery is transmitted via the Internet.