Facebook Built the Perfect Platform for Covid Vaccine Conspiracies
Mark Zuckerberg wanted to make his social network a reliable source about the pandemic. Instead he’s helped spread misinformation about vaccines causing infertility.
Kaleese Williams had mostly stayed off Facebook and Instagram before Covid-19 hit. But during the lockdown, the 37-year-old was stuck on her north Texas farm with her husband, their 3-year-old, and their chickens and goats. She was also cut off from a source of income. Williams sells essential oils for a multilevel marketing company in Utah called Young Living. She’d normally set up booths at conferences and other events, making a little money while socializing with passersby. “Quarantine is not a whole lot of fun,” Williams says. “So I started thinking, ‘What would be so wrong with me sharing on social media?’ ” Her plan was to take her essential oils business on Instagram, where she could sell to people she met there.
Williams decided to splurge on an online course called Ready Set Gram Pro. It promised to help her build a “highly engaged” community on the photo sharing app that would “generate consistent leads and sales.” By watching web tutorials and participating in Zoom sessions, she learned tricks to attract potential customers to her profile—for instance, by commenting on the posts of popular wellness influencers.