🚨New: Diving into the #magnetchallenge online, the false narrative that the COVID-19 vaccine causes you to become magnetic. We assess the challenges of moderating videos that range from debunks to satire to true believers. Some 🔑 takeaways 🧵1/6 viralityproject.org/rapid-response…
The #magnetchallenge took off around the 3rd week of May, after a viral TikTok showed a magnet sticking to the arm of a vaccinated person. The challenge gained momentum across mainstream platforms, fringe sites, and across multiple languages such as Spanish and Chinese. 2/6
Claims about unsafe ingredients in vaccines are a persistent trope in the anti-vaccine community. And like other narratives we’ve seen, there are many different responses to the health misinformation, which requires platforms to have tradeoffs in making moderation decisions: 3/6
We discuss a number of the moderation dilemmas in our post. One is on allowing the community to debunk the claims rather than take it down. One upside is that moderation isn’t coming from just platforms, which can sometimes create a sense that the claim is “forbidden truth” 4/6
One downside is the debunking videos still give oxygen to a narrative that may discourage vaccine skepticism. We saw the effect of the #magnetchallenge offline when anti-vaccine activists presented their claims about magnets before the Ohio State Legislature on June 8. 5/6
This case study represents vaccine concerns on the border of satire and harm. We've seen many claims before the #magnetchallenge and will undoubtedly see more. Therefore platforms need clear policies on satirical content and vaccine misinfo. viralityproject.org/rapid-response… 6/6
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