Digital media offers countless possibilities for communicating scientific knowledge on health,

but it can also be used to promote disinformation campaigns that discredit science, attack public policies and confuse the public about treatments with or without proven scientific efficacy. These campaigns are often motivated by financial and/or political interests, and can be used to spread conspiracy theories about the origin of diseases, myths about vaccines and promote “alternative” medicines and therapies.

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Various organizations, digital influencers and self-proclaimed experts have attempted to influence the public debate on science to create false dissent. These agents mobilize public opinion against scientific knowledge, exploiting the lack of platform regulation to share false information about health and well-being. Effective communication in these environments increasingly depends on bonds of identification between the issuer

and the audience, which gives influencers a central role

as opinion leaders in segmented niches.

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Our studies analyze the communication strategies used

on the various digital media platforms to manipulate information about health crises, promote false treatments, exploit the credibility of public and scientific institutions, encourage self-medication, and reinforce individual care practices to the detriment of collective health policies.

We also seek to map how digital advertising has been used to drive the disinformation market and how these practices contribute to undermining the population's trust in public health policies, experts, and media outlets.