Social Media Urged to Block Antivax “Superspreaders”

The violent assault on the U.S. Capitol Building has awakened the world to the harm that social media can do to our society. Twitter permanently shut down President Donald Trump’s account. His Facebook account was suspended until he leaves office, and many other channels through which the spread of his dangerous misinformation have been curbed. Similar action is needed to stop the anti-vaccine propaganda that is spreading through many of the same online channels. This propaganda is dangerous because if too many people are afraid to get immunized, the COVID-19 pandemic will rage on for years.

Antivax networks promote a “master narrative” with three false messages: (1) COVID-19 is not dangerous, (2) COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous, and (3) vaccine advocates cannot be trusted. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has produced seven superb reports that analyze this problem and what should be done about it.

• The Anti-Vaxx Industry: How Big Tech Powers and Profits from Vaccine Miisinformation. This report exposes how the global scientific consensus on vaccines is being undermined by a small but determined and sophisticated network of individuals and groups that spread misinformation online.
• Failure to Act: How Tech Giants Continue to Defy Calls to Rein in Vaccine Misionformation. This report notes that even when users reported misinformation to the platforms, fewer than 1 in 20 misinformation posts were removed.
• The Anti-Vaxx Playbook. This report reveals how anti-vaccine networks are systematically planning to exploit social media to suppress the use of COVID-19 vaccines.
• #Will to Act: How Social Media Giants Have Failed to Live Up to Their Claims on the Coronavirus ‘Infodemic.’
• Malgorithm: How Instagram’s Algorithm Publishes Misinformationf and Hate to Millions During a Pandemic.
• The Disinformation Dozen: Why Platforms Must Act on Twelve Leading Anti-Vaxxers.
• Disinformation Dozen: The Sequel: Big Tech Is Failing to Act on Leading Anti-Vaxxers Despite Bipartisan Calls from Congess.

The Role of “Superspreaders”

The reports note that social media have given anti-vaxxers access to a much larger audience than they have ever had before. Whereas they have mostly been denied a platform to voice their conspiracy theories and falsehoods by traditional media, the social media have enabled them to reach hundreds of millions of potential new converts. 

The problem lies with a relatively small number of accounts. The 59 million followers of antivax social media accounts identified in The Anti-Vaxx Industry were following just 425 accounts, pages, groups and channels across Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. The report identified ten “superspreaders” of antivax misinformati with the largest cross-platform followings made up the majority of the total audience for anti-vaxxers online:

• Barbara Loe Fisher, the co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Infiormation Center (NVIC), which maintains a Facebook page with 209,000 followers.
• Joseph Mercola, D.O., a prolific publisher who sells dietary supplements and is a major funder of the NVIC. Social media accounts operated by Mercola and his wife have 3.6 million followers.
• Del Bigtree, the founder of Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) and produces an online anti-vaccine news show called The HighWire with 343,000 followers.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the founder of Children’s Health Defence, another anti-vaccine charity.  Kennedy commands a social media following of 1.3 million.
• Sherri Tenpenny, M.D.,  operates a number of “alternative health” and anti-vaccine business ventures, supported by a network of social media accounts with 414,000 followers.
• Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced physician who was struck off the UK General Medical Council’s medical register on charges of serious professional misconduct but has continued to criticize vaccines and produces anti-vaccine films that have proved to be influential on social media
• Vaccination Re-education Discussion Forum, the largest, private anti-vaccine group on Facebook, has 226,000 members and has been operating since 2014.
• Stop Mandatory Vaccination, operated by QAnon conspiracy theorist Larry Cook, was the second largest such group until its removal over calls for violence.
• Vaccine Choices, a private group operated by the Sherri Tenpenny, M.D., has 42,000 members and provides training courses for anti-vaxxers.
• Restore Liability for the Vaccine Makers, a public group with 11,000 members, maintains a wide range of training resources for its members.

The Disinformation Dozen listed Mercola, Kennedy, Tenpenny, and nine others: Ty & Charlene Bollinger; Rizza Islam, Rachid Buttar. Erin Elizabeth; Sayer Ji; Kelly Brogan; Christiane Northrup; Ben Tapper; and Kevin Jenkins.

In another report, CCDH noted that $1,137,101 in Paycheck Protection Program loans by the U.S. Small Business Administration went to five organizations on the first list:

Organization	Loan Amount	Jobs Retained
The National Vaccine Information Center	$136,070	21
Mercola Com Health Resources LLC Mercola Consulting Services	$335,000 $282,500	61 33
Informed Consent Action Network	$165,632	10
Children’s Health Defense Co.	$145,399	7
The Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center LLC	$  72,500	13

ProPublica’s database indicates that TTAC Publishing LLC, operated by the Bollingers, has received two loans totaling $483,727 to retain 43 employees; Rashid Buttar has received $22,300 to retain 2 employees; and Kelly Brogan has received $55,929 to retain 4 employees.

“Deplatforming” Is Needed

Anti-vaxxers are concerned by the prospect of losing their privileged position on social media platforms. CCDH’s campaign to persuade platforms to remove the accounts of conspiracy theorist, David Icke, demonstrate that the reach his propaganda enjoys was greatly reduced by deplatforming him. Whereas academics debate the best way to counter a conspiracy theories, the evidence is clear that the best way to prevent people from falling for them is to prevent them from seeing them in the first place—a strategy called deplatforming. Social media companies should therefore:

• Remove prominent anti-vaxxers from their platforms. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of reach. There is no justification for Facebook or others to continue undermining the attempts to roll out the COVID-19 vaccines by enabling lies to to reach millions. 
• Hire more human moderators. Two studies run by CCDH and Restless Development in 2020 found that 90% of reported COVID-19 misinformation, and 95% of reported antivax misinformation, was not acted on by the main platforms. During a pandemic, user reports of posts that violate platforms policies for harmful misinformation should be be dealt with in 24 hours. 
• Stop monetising antivax misinformation. YouTube channels that spread anti-vaccine messages in their videos should have their advertising removed from all of their videos. Websites that publish medical misinformation should not enjoy the privilege of Google or other advertising providers placing adverts across their sites. The piecemeal action taken to date, of removing advertising from individual videos and articles—often weeks or months after publication—has no deterrent value.
• Promote good information. Platforms should be2 careful to verify (attach blue ticks to) accounts of professional medical providers, including individual doctors, nurses, health scientists, and other sources of expertise. Currently, social media platforms are signaling that some of these anti-vaxxers accounts are more worthy of users attention than medical experts. 
• Don’t promote harmful trends. Hashtags and platform ‘trending’ sections have been used by anti-vaxxers to help their propaganda reach new audiences. Antivax hashtags continue to be promoted on Instagram as suggested searches. Platforms should monitor these more closely and stop promoting antivax narratives.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate is a non-profit organization that seeks to disrupt the architecture of online hate and misinformation.