Digital Social Media and Public Health: Experimental Analysis of the Spread of Medical Pseudoscience on TikTok and Instagram

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_3How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Social media; medical pseudoscience; digital misinformation; public health; media literacy

Abstract

Today, digital social networks have established themselves as the main sources of information for millions of users. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram not only entertain, but also shape perceptions about health, science, and well-being. This dynamic poses a challenge for scientific communication, which must adapt to short, visual, and viral formats in order to maintain credibility and impact. A worrying phenomenon is the proliferation of medical pseudoscience: anti-vaccine rhetoric, miracle diets, unproven therapies, and unregulated advice. Spread in attractive formats and by influential figures, they generate confusion and can affect public health, undermining trust in scientific knowledge and institutions. In response to this situation, the L-earn group is proposing experimental research. Its objective is to identify the factors that drive the viral spread of pseudo-scientific content and how users perceive its veracity. The main contribution will be low levels of critical verification, which highlights the need to strengthen media literacy in health. The main contribution will be to design innovative scientific communication tools. L-earn seeks to train young people through interactive applications, educational content adapted to viral formats, and digital campaigns that promote critical thinking and respect for scientific evidence, positioning itself as a benchmark in communication solutions for the digital age.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Filippo Sinchi
AU  - Ismael Fernando Ortiz Valverde
AU  - Christian Fernando Pilliza Chicaiza
AU  - Luis Alfonso Morales Cumba
AU  - Diego Almeida-Galarraga
AU  - Paulina Vizcaíno-Imacaña
AU  - Andrés Tirado-Espín
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/16
TI  - Digital Social Media and Public Health: Experimental Analysis of the Spread of Medical Pseudoscience on TikTok and Instagram
BT  - Proceedings of the VI International Conference on Communication and Applied Technologies 2026 (ICOMTA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 14
EP  - 24
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_3
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_3
ID  - Sinchi2026
ER  -