A.W. Ohlheiserin in Vox, June 21, 2024, says online falsehoods still proliferate from the dangers of sunscreen to bogus cancer cures. He says it is tough to test the validity of his assessment since the platforms make it difficult for researchers to examine the record. Ohlheiseerin says it’s hard to see what platforms are doing to stop the falsehoods, “While these companies assess how much they care about moderating and addressing their platform’s capacity to spread lies, the people targeted by those lies are getting hurt.”
In the meantime, scientific journals are swamped with fake research. Nineteen academic journals recently stopped publishing, unable to deal with a deluge of suspect research. Handling thousands of retractions can overwhelm a publisher. (The Washington Post, June 11, 2024, by Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky)