published originally on Tech Policy Press
Earlier this year at a school board meeting in Indiana, Dan Stock, who calls himself “a private practice family medicine physician”, argued that mask wearing causes more harm than catching COVID-19 and that vaccines are dangerous. Videos of his speech went viral and gained…
Israeli and Palestinian extremists are leveraging each other’s social media content to radicalize their own publics and escalate violence
This post was was originally published on Tech Policy Press
The human and political ramifications of the recent violence in Israel and Palestine are still developing. Even as shattered buildings and lives are examined, it is important also to look at how the conflict played out in the digital realm…
Last year, just before the pandemic hit, anti vaxxers celebrated a victory in New Jersey. A hub for the pharma industry, they had managed to block legislation to limit vaccine exemptions. …
A lot has been written about the dismissal of facts and reality by President Trump and his allies and their relentless effort to push “alternative facts” in order to create a content ecosystem claiming Trump has won the election but has been prevented from securing the presidency due to collusion…
Conversations about a Covid-19 vaccine have been ongoing since the disease came into our lives. As researchers, pharma companies and governments push ahead with vaccine development, chatter online is gaining steam. Mapping the conversation around vaccines on Facebook public groups over the month of August using Crowdtangle hints at a…
In an earlier post I described the emergence of an anonymous “confession” blaming the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) alongside Gilead Sciences, UNC, Jared Kushner and several other entities for the dissemination of SARS CoV 2. The post was published on Facebook, but despite coordinated efforts…
On 8/11/2020, a newly activated Facebook account by the name of “Smantha Hill”, published a long post, claiming to deliver a first-hand explosive testimony about the real origins of COVID-19, starting with a supposed confession: ”Sorry, we played an evil part in the outbreak of COVID-19”. The post’s author, pretending…
UPDATE: Since this post has been published, Facebook apparently took action against SouthFront, and links from the website cannot be shared on the platform. According to a SouthFront post, this action took place on 8/8. SouthFront is now linking to its articles under different urls, including the one of Globalresearch…
When looking into the tool box used by the anti science movement, and particularly during Covid-19, one great source for science deniers, is science itself. To be more specific, PubMed, the NIH’s online repository of peer-reviewed biomedical and life sciences literature.
Data from Buzzsumo and Crowdtangle suggests that the most…
In January 2020, before we were familiar with Covid-19, Alex Jones’ channel, Infowars, hosted Del Bigtree — a producer, and antivax streamer — to explain the “vaccine choice’’ protests held in New Jersey. Bigtree went from criticizing vaccination legislation to rooting what he considers scientists’ false belief in vaccines, then…
