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Health misinformation—now accelerated by AI—is reshaping how adolescents understand sexuality, vaccination and care, often eroding trust in health systems. In a global webinar convened by Inter-Parliamentary Union and Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, parliamentarians, experts and civil society from 69 countries explored how AI amplifies false narratives—and how empathy-driven communication, ethical AI governance and parliamentary leadership can protect the right to health and advance equity.
While not a new phenomenon, health misinformation today reaches larger audiences with greater sophistication. Generative AI tools can produce persuasive health-related content, including videos, images, testimonials and simplified “scientific” explanations that circulate rapidly through social media and messaging platforms. Algorithms can further amplify emotionally charged or sensational narratives, often without regard for accuracy or harm. A recurring theme throughout the webinar was that countering misinformation requires more than factual accuracy. Miguel Benasayag, philosopher and psychoanalyst, reflected on why evidence alone often fails to change beliefs. In information-saturated environments, people interpret health messages through emotion, identity, and lived experience. Experiences from Africa and Latin America, he noted, show that top-down or purely technical approaches can come to nothing or even backfire when perceived as disconnected from local realities. Effective communication must therefore combine facts with empathy and culturally resonant storytelling. This perspective resonated with Onyinye Onuoha of MSI Reproductive Choices Nigeria, who described how community-based approaches help women access accurate reproductive health information aligned with their values and concerns. While AI-enabled tools such as chatbots can expand access to reliable guidance, she cautioned that algorithms can also amplify harmful narratives if left unchecked. Building trust, she argued, requires collaboration with communities and civil society alongside digital platforms, ensuring that technology supports human connection rather than replacing it. Drawing on a WHO-linked scoping review, Ms Åsa Nihlén, World Health Organization, explained that misinformation affects the right to health at multiple levels. At the individual level, it undermines autonomy and informed decision-making. At the community level, it fuels stigma, discrimination, and harassment, including against sexual and reproductive health and rights advocates and health workers themselves. Over time, these dynamics can influence policy debates and reinforce restrictive or harmful laws. Trust, she stressed, is therefore central. Without trust in information sources and institutions, even accurate health messages fail to translate into access or uptake.
AI adds a new dimension to this challenge. While unchecked AI systems can accelerate the spread of misinformation, AI also offers opportunities to counter it. Tools that detect false content and promote accurate and culturally relevant communication can make a meaningful difference if utilized responsibly. Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, Member of the IPU Committee on Health and Member of Parliament from India, illustrated how regulatory and parliamentary action can help shape this balance. In India, widespread health misinformation across domains such as vaccines, cancer and reproductive health prompted legislative amendments empowering a government fact-checking unit to flag false content, requiring platforms to remove or label it. While not a standalone solution, he argued that such measures demonstrate how elected officials and government can engage technology companies and set clearer expectations for accountability. He also stressed that AI governance stretches far beyond technology, requiring consideration of how systems are embedded in society and aligned with the public interest and equity. From a broader democratic and security perspective, Ms Francesca Onori of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly highlighted how health misinformation weakens social cohesion and trust in institutions. Women, children and adolescents are disproportionately affected, particularly by false narratives related to sexual and reproductive health and rights and vaccination. She also pointed to emerging mental health concerns as young people increasingly turn to AI tools for emotional support, underscoring the need for transparency, oversight and independent audits of AI systems used in health contexts.
It is against this backdrop that parliaments and democratic institutions occupy a uniquely strategic position. They shape legal frameworks governing AI, digital platforms, and health information, oversee executive action, and help determine how rights are protected in rapidly evolving technological landscapes. Importantly, parliamentarians also act as trusted communicators, able to model responsible public discourse and engage communities directly. The webinar underscored the importance of collaboration between parliamentarians and civil society to strengthen community trust, promote accurate health information, and protect the right to health. Experiences shared from Nigeria and Senegal demonstrated how combining digital tools with youth engagement, religious leaders, and trusted intermediaries can counter misinformation more effectively than isolated fact-checking efforts. A recent PMNCH-supported CAAP activity in Senegal, for example, leveraged young people’s digital fluency to co-create and disseminate evidence-based messages on sexual and reproductive health and rights, family planning, and maternal and newborn health.
The discussions made clear that addressing health misinformation in the age of AI is both a governance and an equity challenge. It requires technical solutions in tandem with democratic accountability, human rights-based approaches, and inclusive lawmaking. Ethically governed AI, accurate communication grounded in empathy and cultural relevance, as well as the engagement of women and young people as co-creators, are all essential. For PMNCH, IPU, and partners, this agenda is central to safeguarding progress on women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health. It also offers a test of how democratic institutions respond to complex challenges at the intersection of technology, democracy, and rights, ensuring that the digital future strengthens health equity and outcomes.