Should public health agencies trust social media?
There have been numerous articles like the linked article about research indicating that detection of contagious disease outbreaks by monitoring social media content could allow public health agencies to act more expeditiously to respond to outbreaks and thereby more effectively protect public health. However, many of these articles predate the knowledge of cyber-sabotage of election campaigns via social media in the last few years, and the possibility of similar cyber-sabotage of public health deserves some consideration. For example, it could be expected that practitioners of germ-warfare, germ-crime, or germ-terrorism could attempt to subvert the public health arencies' response to their offenses with disinformation sent through social media. How should governments act now to make best use of available data and while protecting from the threats?