They Claimed the Covid Vaccine Made Them Sick--and Went Viral

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:Oliver Darcy
@oliverdarcy
"The videos spread unchecked, racking up millions of views and tens of thousands of comments. Devoid of context and, even now, challenging to factcheck, their spread is the latest salvo in the struggle to debunk vaccine disinformation and misinformation."

They Claimed the Covid Vaccine Made Them Sick—and Went Viral
On Facebook, videos of people reporting disturbing side-effects from the shots have been viewed by millions. Fact-checking efforts can't keep up.
wired.com
2:37 PM · Jan 26, 2021

https://www.wired.com/story/they-claimed-the-covid-vaccine-made-them-sick-and-went-viral/

[Cirque du So-What]

1. ...

[NJCher]

2. here's an institute that studies phenomena like this

https://fsi.stanford.edu/news/society-needs-adapt-world-widespread-disinformation

snip

“What has happened is a devolution into bespoke realities,” DiResta said. “People are operating in complete parallel universes.”

snip

I think anyone can see how damaging something like this campaign can cause. We need a certain number of people to take the vaccine to get to herd immunity. This kind of false information will cause untold numbers of people to avoid it.

Here is how the scholars study such phenomena:

Oftentimes, the platforms(this woud be places like Twitter, Facebook, etc.) will reach out to the SIO (Stanford Internet Observatory) for help in analyzing suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior, or “manipulative campaigns,” DiResta said. Once they’ve identified the suspicious behavior, SIO researchers will examine the tactics of how the operation was executed, and they’ll study the narratives to try to understand the motivations of the actors behind it.

Drawing on the data gained from their research, the SIO suggests policy changes to members of government and the tech platforms to potentially mitigate the misuse going forward.


I would not be surprised if the SIO were studying this now.