French health authorities on Tuesday launched a campaign against what they describe as ‘one of the biggest public health risks today’ – false or misleading medical information online.
The government says that vaccinations, cancer treatments, diet, mental health and women’s health are particularly targeted, adding that “health misinformation is one of the main risks to public health today”.
Launching the new strategy on Monday, health minister Stéphanie Rist said: “When false information circulates faster than science, it is the most vulnerable who pay the highest price.”
“And in the face of this, the State can neither remain silent nor be content to be simply reactive. That is why, today, we are changing our approach.
The minister, who is a qualified doctor and worked as a rheumatologist before entering politics, added: “The phenomenon, far from being marginal, is rooted in our daily digital lives and calls for a systemic, cross-disciplinary and determined response.”
Monday saw the publication of a report on the subject prepared by three scientists, who concluded that medical misinformation was a grave public health issue, and is largely driven by “influencers, campaign groups and rogue scientists”, motivated by “economic, ideological or identity-based” factors.
The government has created the Observatoire de la désinformation en santé (Health misinformation observatory), whose role will be to monitor online misinformation, publish barometers to aid understanding of health issues and lead working groups.
The Observatoire is working on creating a network of experts, journalists and content creators to analyse and grade health information that is published online, especially on social media. However a proposal for a ‘Health Info-Score’ label, similar to the Nutri Score grading used on food, was rejected.
The government has also announced the creation of a ‘citizen consultation’ on the issue, made up of 27 members of the public who will begin work in mid February.