Title

Voices of the HPV Vaxx: Exploring Online Discourse Surrounding HPV Vaccination in the Philippines

Osorio, Maria Jeriesa P. (mposorio@up.edu.ph) | Reman, Macon (macon.shiga@gmail.com) | Juguilon, Allena Therese G. (agjuguilon@up.edu.ph)

Department of Communication Research · College of Media and Communication · University of the Philippines Diliman

Background

Background

The Human papillomavirus (HPV) is detected as the “most common sexually transmitted infectious organism” worldwide as of 2025,1 and persistent infection of this virus has been responsible for less than 700,000 new cancer cases per year among men and mostly among women.2–4

Limited access to HPV vaccination programs, inadequate screening services, and social and economic barriers affect LMICs disproportionately, like the Philippines.

Besides access to services, the World Health Organization (WHO) insists that elevating public awareness and access to information are critical to cervical cancer prevention,4 especially in a time of massive reliance on the Internet, particularly social media, for health information-seeking.5,6

While the Internet serves as the primary source of HPV-related information, many young Filipino adults have low levels of awareness regarding HPV vaccine availability in the Philippines and think that HPV discussions are limited, thus contributing to low uptake.7,8

Research Problem & Objectives

Research Problem & Objectives

Given the indispensable role of social media in facilitating public awareness of health concerns and how this mediates the social contract between health systems and the public, this study explores HPV vaccination discourse within the Philippine health communication landscape amid low vaccine uptake and rising cervical cancer incidence and mortality.

This study particularly aimed to:

  1. identify key actors driving HPV vaccine-related discussions,
  2. identify primary HPV vaccine-related themes using topic keywords, and
  3. recommend health communication strategies to address HPV-related concerns.
Method

Method

1. KEYWORD SEARCH

8 HPV-related search terms (English & Filipino)
hpv, human papillomavirus, hpv vaccine, Gardasil, bakuna kontra HPV, cervical cancer vaccine, etc

2. DATA COLLECTION

Platforms: Facebook (CrowdTangle) and TikTok (Apify)
Period covered: January 2020 – July 2024
Extraction dates: August 14, 2024 & February 22, 2025
(additional TikTok scraping)

3. DATA CLEANING

Deduplication of posts; Removal of spam

4. NETWORK CONSTRUCTION & TOPIC MODELING

Facebook
Nodes = public accounts
Edges = content-sharing relationships
Source → account initiating the share
Target → account receiving/shared by

TikTok
Nodes = public accounts
Edges = shared HPV-related hashtags
Source → account introducing a hashtag
Target → other accounts using the same hashtag

5. TOPIC MODELING

BERTopic (multilingual model)
English + Filipino posts
c-TF-IDF used to generate coherent topic representations
Identify dominant themes in HPV discourse

6. ANALYSIS

Identify influential accounts (key opinion leaders)
Compare discourse themes across platforms
Examine patterns of information dissemination

Facebook — Network Analysis

facebook_nodes.json / facebook_edges.json
Key insight Facebook's high network modularity corresponds to an institutional core challenged by isolated, ideological vaccine debates.
Loading network

Network summary

▾
Nodes-
Edges-
Communities-

Legend

Degree centrality
Betweenness
Eigenvector

Facebook — Topic Modeling

facebook_topics.html
Displays high modularity, with distinct, isolated clusters separating health institutions, commercial pages, and advocacy groups. Public health agencies dominate a dense institutional core around vaccination promotion (Themes 1, 5, 6), while anti-vaccine safety debates (Theme 2) splinter into isolated peripheral echo chambers.
Loading topic modeling results…

TikTok — Network Analysis

tiktok_nodes.json / tiktok_edges.json
Key insight TikTok's interconnected creator network manifests as a stark semantic divide between professional health advocacy and viral home-remedy marketing.
Loading network

Network summary

▾
Nodes-
Edges-
Communities-

Legend

Degree centrality
Betweenness
Eigenvector

TikTok — Topic Modeling

tiktok_topics.html
Displays low network modularity with an interconnected structure driven by shared lifestyle trends and decentralized creator interactions. Content presents a distinct top-to-bottom spatial separation between professional health education (Theme 1) and viral home-remedy promotions (Theme 2), with general sexual health literacy (Theme 3) serving as the central connecting link.
Loading topic modeling results…
Discussion

Discussion

Platform Architecture Dictates How Misinformation Spreads

Networks shape behavior: Facebook's group-centric design fosters closed, ideological echo chambers around policy and trust, whereas TikTok's trend-driven algorithm encourages the rapid, viral spread of product-focused self-treatments across an interconnected user base.

Misinformation Motives Vary: Ideology vs. Commercialization

Public health messaging faces two fundamentally different opponents—politicized vaccine skepticism on Facebook (ideological opposition to institutional authority) versus quick-fix wellness marketing on TikTok (commercial exploitation of symptom-seeking users)

One-Size-Fits-All Public Health Campaigns Will Fail

Effective outreach requires platform-tailored intervention: Facebook campaigns must actively penetrate isolated fringe groups to address specific safety fears, while TikTok campaigns must occupy central bridging topics (like general symptom awareness) to intercept users before they turn to unverified remedies.

References & Acknowledgments

References & Acknowledgments

  1. Garcia MR, Leslie SW, Wray AA. Sexually Transmitted Infections. In: StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing; 2025. Accessed February 27, 2026. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560808/
  2. de Martel C, Plummer M, Vignat J, Franceschi S. Worldwide burden of cancer attributable to HPV by site, country and HPV type. Int J Cancer. 2017;141(4):664-670. doi:10.1002/ijc.30716
  3. de Martel C, Georges D, Bray F, Ferlay J, Clifford GM. Global burden of cancer attributable to infections in 2018: a worldwide incidence analysis. Lancet Glob Health. 2020;8(2):e180-e190. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30488-7
  4. World Health Organization. Cervical Cancer. 2025. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cervical-cancer
  5. Himelboim I, Xiao X, Lee DKL, Wang MY, Borah P. A Social Networks Approach to Understanding Vaccine Conversations on Twitter: Network Clusters, Sentiment, and Certainty in HPV Social Networks. Health Communication. 2020;35(5):607-615. doi:10.1080/10410236.2019.1573446
  6. Massey PM, Kearney MD, Hauer MK, Selvan P, Koku E, Leader AE. Dimensions of Misinformation About the HPV Vaccine on Instagram: Content and Network Analysis of Social Media Characteristics. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2020;22(12):e21451. doi:10.2196/21451
  7. Lintao RCV, Cando LFT, Perias GAS, et al. Current Status of Human Papillomavirus Infection and Cervical Cancer in the Philippines. Front Med (Lausanne). 2022;9:929062. doi:10.3389/fmed.2022.929062
  8. Dinglasan JM, Dinglasan JB, Angelica, et al. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of senior high school students in Manila city on Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection and vaccination: a descriptive cross-sectional study. Health Sciences Journal. 2025;14(2). Accessed February 25, 2026. https://www.herdin.ph/index.php?view=research&cid=90958

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development (OVCRD), University of the Philippines Diliman for providing travel support through the UP Diliman Research Dissemination Grant to present this research.