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The vast majority of Covid-19 vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories come from just 12 people, according to a Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) report cited by the White House this week.
The CCDH, a UK / US nonprofit and nongovernmental organization, discovered in March that the 12 online personalities they dubbed the ‘dozen of disinformation’ had a total of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms , Facebook having the biggest impact. The CCDH analyzed 812,000 Facebook posts and tweets and found that 65% came from the dozen disinformation. Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general, and Joe Biden this week focused on misinformation around vaccines as the driving force behind the spread of the virus.
On Facebook alone, the Dozen are responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content, although the vaccines have been deemed safe and effective by the US government and its regulatory agencies. And 95% of the misinformation about Covid reported on these platforms has not been removed.
Among the dozen are doctors who have embraced pseudoscience, a bodybuilder, a wellness blogger, a religious fanatic and most notably Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nephew of John F Kennedy who has also linked vaccines to the autism and 5G broadband cellular networks to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Kennedy has since been removed from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, but not from Facebook itself.
“Facebook, Google and Twitter have policies in place to prevent the spread of vaccine misinformation; To date, not all have succeeded in implementing these policies satisfactorily, ”CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed wrote in the report. “All of them have been particularly ineffective in removing harmful and dangerous misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. “
Although the platforms have since taken steps to delete numerous posts and even remove three of 12 from a platform, the CCDH calls on Facebook and Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to completely remove the dozen of misinformation they deem dangerous and decisive to create vaccine hesitation at a crucial moment in the pandemic.
“Updated policies and declarations are of little value unless they are applied forcefully and consistently,” the report said. “With the vast majority of harmful content being distributed through a number of accounts, removing these few most dangerous individuals and groups can dramatically reduce the amount of disinformation being disseminated on platforms. “
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