Posted on May 10, 2021
The volunteers using 'honeypot' groups to fight anti-vax propaganda
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In a policy shift, Facebook is now removing groups and pages that discourage people from getting vaccines. As social media giants grapple with the anti-vaccine movement, Marianna Spring meets the everyday citizens battling conspiracy theories in their spare time.
The banner image shows a Photoshopped picture of Bill Gates with a crazed expression holding a needle decorated with a skull and crossbones. It looks like a Facebook group promoting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.
But this group actually has very different intentions.
Richard is a builder, a trainee psychologist - and one half of the duo behind the decoy group. He says he aims not to spread bad information but rather to help people attracted to conspiracy theories.
His friend Dave (not his real name; we've agreed to give him a pseudonym because he fears abuse from anti-vaccine activists) believed in conspiracy theories for the best part of 20 years.
"If I was to actually create a group saying, 'I'm going to re-educate you'... then I'm not going to get any takers," he says.
The banner image shows a Photoshopped picture of Bill Gates with a crazed expression holding a needle decorated with a skull and crossbones. It looks like a Facebook group promoting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.
But this group actually has very different intentions.
Richard is a builder, a trainee psychologist - and one half of the duo behind the decoy group. He says he aims not to spread bad information but rather to help people attracted to conspiracy theories.
His friend Dave (not his real name; we've agreed to give him a pseudonym because he fears abuse from anti-vaccine activists) believed in conspiracy theories for the best part of 20 years.
"If I was to actually create a group saying, 'I'm going to re-educate you'... then I'm not going to get any takers," he says.
The volunteers using 'honeypot' groups to fight anti-vax propaganda
Posted from bbc.com
Facebook
Propaganda
Conspiracy Theories
Posted 3 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
-The problem;
"Original research from BBC Monitoring has revealed how Facebook pages and groups promoting misleading and false claims about vaccines saw a significant rise in followers in several countries across the globe in the past year.
In Ukraine, pages sharing anti-vaccine content grew by 157% in 2020, reaching nearly 26,000 page likes, double the rate for the previous year. In Mexico, Brazil and India, similar pages grew by around 50% each in the past year - faster than in the two previous years.
We showed volunteers an anti-vax video. How did they react?
It's further proof of the spread of anti-vaccine content throughout the pandemic.
Previous research found a huge spike in followers of English-language social media accounts promoting anti-vaccine material during the pandemic, especially on Instagram and Facebook.
Although there is some overlap online, our research focused on extreme content - accounts and groups spreading false "genocide" and "implanted microchip" claims - rather than legitimate questions people have about safety and efficacy, and stories about rare cases of blood clots."
-The problem;
"Original research from BBC Monitoring has revealed how Facebook pages and groups promoting misleading and false claims about vaccines saw a significant rise in followers in several countries across the globe in the past year.
In Ukraine, pages sharing anti-vaccine content grew by 157% in 2020, reaching nearly 26,000 page likes, double the rate for the previous year. In Mexico, Brazil and India, similar pages grew by around 50% each in the past year - faster than in the two previous years.
We showed volunteers an anti-vax video. How did they react?
It's further proof of the spread of anti-vaccine content throughout the pandemic.
Previous research found a huge spike in followers of English-language social media accounts promoting anti-vaccine material during the pandemic, especially on Instagram and Facebook.
Although there is some overlap online, our research focused on extreme content - accounts and groups spreading false "genocide" and "implanted microchip" claims - rather than legitimate questions people have about safety and efficacy, and stories about rare cases of blood clots."
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