Jessica Morley, Josh Cowls, Mariarosaria Taddeo, Luciano Floridi
Since 2016, social media companies and news providers have come under pressure to tackle the spread of political mis- and dis-information (MDI) online. However, despite evidence that online health MDI (on the web, on social media, and within mobile apps) also has negative real-world effects, there has been a lack of comparable action by either online service providers or state-sponsored public health bodies. We argue that this is problematic and seek to answer three questions: why has so little has been done to control the flow of, and exposure to, health MDI online? How might more robust action be justified? And what specific, newly-justified actions are needed to curb the flow of, and exposure to, online health MDI? In answering these questions, we show that four ethical concerns-related to paternalism, autonomy, freedom of speech, and pluralism-are partly responsible for the lack of intervention...
July 8, 2020: Journal of Medical Internet Research