In this paper we apply the concept of vulnerable consumers to the context of social media in order to develop insights on how the adverse societal impacts of misinformation might be mitigated. We explain how the relationship between social media platforms and their users exhibits many of the characteristics of marketing; and how social media users exhibit several characteristics of vulnerable consumers. Building on those arguments, we examine how existing guidelines for marketing to vulnerable consumers might inform approaches used by social media companies to combat misinformation and its resultant harms.
