New research from Women’s Health World finds harmful fertility content consistently outperforms accurate health information across four major platforms.
A new independent research analysis published by Women’s Health World has found that harmful fertility misinformation reaches significantly more people on social media than accurate health content. The findings point to a structural problem in how platforms are designed, rather than a content moderation failure alone.
Women’s Health World, in which Reset Media Group holds a one-third joint venture stake, published the report as part of its Verified Voices initiative. The analysis covered 247 posts across Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok. Each post was graded on a scale of zero to four, with zero representing fully accurate information and four representing dangerous or predatory content. The methodology draws on clinical evidence standards from bodies such as the WHO, NHS, ACOG, and CDC.
What did the research find?
The harmful content rate varied across platforms but was significant on all four. TikTok recorded the highest rate at 44 per cent of posts assessed. Instagram came in at 24.2 per cent, X at 25 per cent, and Facebook at 21.6 per cent. The single highest-reach post in the dataset, an Instagram reel presenting fertility pseudoscience as nutritional fact, accumulated 8.91 million views. Its creator holds no verified clinical qualification.
The geographic dimension is particularly striking. On TikTok, 72.7 per cent of posts geotagged for African audiences were rated Level 4. On Facebook, the equivalent figure was 89 per cent. The report states that predatory content targeting African women operates at a rate suggesting deliberate exploitation, reaching audiences least positioned to verify the claims being made.
Why does misinformation spread further than accurate content?
The research identifies what it calls an engagement paradox. On Facebook, Level 4 predatory posts generated an average of 208 reshares, against 73 for evidence-based Level 0 posts. On Instagram, nine Level 3 posts accumulated a combined 12.27 million views. On TikTok, misleading content reached 2.6 times the audience of content that was merely anecdotal.
The report’s conclusion is direct. Content moderation targeting individual posts cannot address this pattern without reform of the underlying algorithmic architecture. The problem is structural, not incidental.
Niki Kandirikirira, Chief Programmes Officer at Equality Now, said platforms had consistently treated gendered misinformation as a moderation problem rather than a design failure. “The harm is a consequence of how they are designed to manipulate behaviours for profit and ideological capture,” she said. “The burden of responsibility sits with the platforms and governments that should hold them to account.”
How does each platform differ?
The analysis found that each platform hosts a structurally distinct misinformation type. Facebook is dominated by predatory supplement promotion. Instagram’s primary harm vector is credentialled pseudoscience, with harmful creators using titles such as Fertility Doula or Fertility Yoga Therapist to establish trust in claims lacking clinical support. X carries anti-vaccine fertility conspiracy content embedded within ideological networks. TikTok hosts geographically targeted predatory content, reaching audiences through creator followings averaging 92,000 per Level 4 post.
Is more research needed?
The report is an initial analysis. A second research phase will extend the methodology across all ten WHO priority health areas for women and a substantially larger dataset. Women’s Health World is seeking research partners and funders to support that work.
Paul Hackett from Women’s Health World said the findings warranted further investigation given the scale implied by such a small sample. “When reviewing 247 posts gathered from a single search term across four platforms, there appears to be potential for harmful content to reach a significant number of women,” he said.
The full Fertility Misinformation on Social Media Platforms report is available on the Women’s Health World website.
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