Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows

[signalmankenneth]

I guess you can call them, the dirty dozen?!! One of the sad things about this is, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of them?!! He is a disgrace to the Kennedy name!

Researchers have found just 12 people are responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

"The 'Disinformation Dozen' produce 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms," said Imran Ahmed, chief executive officer of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which identified the accounts.

Now the vaccine rollout is reaching a critical stage in which most adults who want the vaccine have gotten it, but many others are holding out, these 12 influential social media users stand to have an outsize impact on the outcome.

After this story published on Thursday, Facebook said it had taken down more of the accounts run by these 12 individuals.

These figures are well-known to both researchers and the social networks. They include anti-vaccine activists, alternative health entrepreneurs and physicians. Some of them run multiple accounts across the different platforms. They often promote "natural health." Some even sell supplements and books.

Many of the messages about the COVID-19 vaccines being widely spread online mirror what's been said in the past about other vaccines by peddlers of health misinformation.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/99657...vaccine-hoaxes

[Trumpet]

I guess you can call them, the dirty dozen?!! One of the sad things about this is, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of them?!! He is a disgrace to the Kennedy name!

Researchers have found just 12 people are responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

"The 'Disinformation Dozen' produce 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms," said Imran Ahmed, chief executive officer of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which identified the accounts.

Now the vaccine rollout is reaching a critical stage in which most adults who want the vaccine have gotten it, but many others are holding out, these 12 influential social media users stand to have an outsize impact on the outcome.

After this story published on Thursday, Facebook said it had taken down more of the accounts run by these 12 individuals.

These figures are well-known to both researchers and the social networks. They include anti-vaccine activists, alternative health entrepreneurs and physicians. Some of them run multiple accounts across the different platforms. They often promote "natural health." Some even sell supplements and books.

Many of the messages about the COVID-19 vaccines being widely spread online mirror what's been said in the past about other vaccines by peddlers of health misinformation.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/99657...vaccine-hoaxes

CNN tracked down a super-spreader of Covid-19 misinformation. See how he reacted

CNN's Randi Kaye attempts to track down Dr. Joseph Mercola to find out why he continues to spread misinformation about Covid-19 and the vaccine.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/20...s/coronavirus/

[Trumpet]

I guess you can call them, the dirty dozen?!! One of the sad things about this is, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of them?!! He is a disgrace to the Kennedy name!

Researchers have found just 12 people are responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

"The 'Disinformation Dozen' produce 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms," said Imran Ahmed, chief executive officer of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which identified the accounts.

Now the vaccine rollout is reaching a critical stage in which most adults who want the vaccine have gotten it, but many others are holding out, these 12 influential social media users stand to have an outsize impact on the outcome.

After this story published on Thursday, Facebook said it had taken down more of the accounts run by these 12 individuals.

These figures are well-known to both researchers and the social networks. They include anti-vaccine activists, alternative health entrepreneurs and physicians. Some of them run multiple accounts across the different platforms. They often promote "natural health." Some even sell supplements and books.

Many of the messages about the COVID-19 vaccines being widely spread online mirror what's been said in the past about other vaccines by peddlers of health misinformation.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/99657...vaccine-hoaxes

CNN tracked down a super-spreader of Covid-19 misinformation. See how he reacted

CNN's Randi Kaye attempts to track down Dr. Joseph Mercola to find out why he continues to spread misinformation about Covid-19 and the vaccine.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/20...s/coronavirus/

[signalmankenneth]

[ThatOwlWoman]

Absolutely unnecessary.

These anti-vaxxers are like starving ppl who burn the airdropped food sent to them because they didn't like the senders.

[Phantasmal]

I hope he recovers.

[Walt]

I guess you can call them, the dirty dozen?!!

Behind them maybe just one person... Putin?

[Hawkeye10]

Interesting headline at the far left New Republic, which I have not read in decades but for a bunch of years I had a subscription:

The Media is too Clueless and Sensationalistic to Properly Explain Breakthrough COVID

https://newrepublic.com/