What sort of accounts link #antivax websites on Twitter? We took a look at recent tweets linking 25 different websites that frequently feature anti-vaccine content; here's what we found. #MakingInfectiousDiseasesGreatAgain #WednesdayWisdom
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
First off, the accounts linking antivax sites appear to be overwhelmingly right-wing, based on the hashtags in their profiles. #MAGA, #WWG1WGA, #KAG, #Trump2020, #QAnon, and #2A are the most frequently used, with plenty of other Q-related hashtags in the mix too. #QAnonsense
Retweet network for the 25 antivax sites. @LotusOak2 is the most oft-retweeted account, and also the one with the most varied repertoire, with links to 17 different anti-vaccine websites. @RobertKennedyJR and our old propaganda pal @Ian56789 show up too (it's been a while!)
The largest node in the network, @LotusOak2, is also partially automated, with 65.9% of tweets sent via an app called "Vaccines and Homeopathy News". The automated tweets mostly consist of links to a variety of anti-vaccine and other questionable "alternative health care" sites.
Next, we have a 39 account botnet promoting the Juice Plus multilevel marketing scheme and associated products. These accounts are automated via a tool called EdgeTheory.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juice_Plus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juice_Plus
The Juice Plus botnet doesn't appear to be an anti-vax project per se; it primarily promotes the juiceplus(dot)com website and mixes health information of varying quality from a variety of sites in for good measure (links to mercola(dot)com caused it to turn up in our analysis.)
The myGoodBot botnet we recently described also turns up (this isn't surprising, as we originally found it by searching for bots that retweeted antivax content.) This botnet games retweet-to-win contests by retweeting the same tweets on multiple accounts.
Other frequent fliers that also turned up in the antivax set include Japanese #QAnon bot @QAJF_bot and #resistance bot @russ30327. (The latter sometimes misfires and retweets #MAGA tweets instead.)
