What happens when you get health advice on Instagram?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2019

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Helena Kornilova is a 29 year-old Russian model and biochemist. She’s also a blogger and Instagram influencer with 280,000 followers. She’s been in the news in Russia because she’s been exposed as a fraudster after recommending medical advice and, in particular, supplements to buy. But this isn’t just a Russian problem, influencers all over the world are selling products and giving health advice even though they are not qualified. We hear from Dr Jen Gunter, who describes herself as the fiercest advocate of women’s health. She has spent a lot of her professional career challenging dubious medical claims. We also talk to Olga Robinson from BBC Monitoring about how the authorities in Russia are clamping down on bloggers and influencers. Producers: Seren Jones and Philly Beaumont Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:05.0	How do you say hello in Russian?
0:06.8	Zdraustwichi.
0:07.8	Hello, this is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4. I'm Matthew Price. Every day we ask one big question about one big story.
0:17.0	Today, what happens when you get health advice on Instagram? Just because someone's on social media and has got loads of followers does not make them an expert.
0:41.0	Influencers on Instagram are selling products, they're giving medical advice, even though
0:46.5	they're not qualified to do so, they're not doctors, they've had no training.
0:50.2	So today we're going to speak to someone who is an expert. She calls herself the fiercest
0:54.7	advocate of women's health. She's spent a lot of her professional career challenging
0:59.4	dubious medical claims as well. We see a lot of misinformation coming even just in mainstream media. A lot of people
1:06.9	use terms like toxins incorrectly. They don't sort of correct old mythology.
1:12.6	But first, we're going to head to Russia. I was scrolling through my news feed on the tube as you do and came across a media report which said
1:30.0	that a famous Russian blogger and Instagram is giving people health advice.
1:37.0	And apparently... and apparently duped them into thinking that she is a qualified by a chemist.
1:48.4	That's Olga Robinson. She's part of the disinformation team on BBC monitoring.
1:53.9	Her name is Yirana Carnillo and she's 29 years old and if you...
1:59.2	Can we have a look?
2:00.0	Sure. So if you just look at her profile. If I didn't know Russian, I would actually think it's just an account
2:07.8	because I don't know Russian. It does look like an account of an aspiring model rather than really by a chemist.
2:15.6	Yeah, no exactly.
2:17.2	It's really slick pictures, a lot of professional photos.
2:21.3	Yeah.
	...

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