🚨New Report!🚨 High-harm misinfo isn't going away & must be met w/ a collective response. Today @ViralityProject releases “Memes, Magnets, and Microchips,” diving into narratives actors & tactics that shaped COVID-19 vaccine conversations in 2021 🧵⤵️

👉viralityproject.org/final-report For 7 months we followed online narratives questioning the safety, distribution & effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. We tracked narratives as they flowed in & across platforms like FB, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok & gathered tips from public health officials & civil society. /2

🚨New post from @ViralityProject — "How Debunked Science Spreads” in which our analysts explore a fundamental tactic for anti-vaccine advocates online: spreading manipulated statistics and debunked scientific research. viralityproject.org/rapid-response… (1/7) In a previous blog post, we explored how anti-vaccine advocates undermine credible experts in an attempt to establish their own foothold. Now, our new blog post expands on what content fills that gap.viralityproject.org/rapid-response… (2/7)

Last week, a joint investigation by @LogicallyAI and @VICE examined the effort behind OpenVAERS, a website they described as “one of the most powerful tools in the anti-vaccine community.” We’d observed a rise in shares of OpenVAERS at @ViralityProject; here’s a quick 🧵. 1/ Some background: OpenVAERS is a wrapper site for the CDC’s adverse events database. Several articles have explained how anti-💉 advocates misleadingly use VAERS to undermine confidence in the safety of vaccines—and did so long before COVID-19. npr.org/sections/healt… 2/

🚨New post from @ViralityProject — "Fauxi Fauxi: Undermining Authoritative Health Sources" Our analysts dig into common tropes used by anti-vaccine influencers to delegitimize established public health voices, most recently with Fauci's FOIA'd emails 1/4 viralityproject.org/rapid-response… We break down false & misleading narratives used on recurring targets: Dr. Fauci, the CDC, and the FDA. An example of these narratives is the false claim that the CDC overreported cases to impose a stringent lockdown but now underrreports to inflate vaccine efficacy rates. 2/4

🚨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

Last week, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene called vaccine passports a “mark of the beast” revitalizing a classic anti-vaccination narrative linking vaccines (and in this case #vaccinepassports) to End Times religious ideology. viralityproject.org/rapid-response… She was not the first to make a link between vaccines or vaccine tracking to the “mark of the beast.” In fact, we’ve seen this narrative with many other vaccines in the past. Even Kanye West made this connection in July 2020.