Truth decayJust 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes on Social Media

Published 17 May 2021

Researchers have found that just twelve individuals are responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Many of the messages about the COVID-19 vaccines being widely spread online echo the lies peddlers of health misinformation have been spreading in the past about other vaccines, for example, the vaccines against measles, mumps, and rubella.

Researchers have found that just twelve individuals are responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The ‘Disinformation Dozen’ produce 65 percent of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms,” Imran Ahmed, chief executive officer of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which identified the accounts, told NPR.

Many of the messages about the COVID-19 vaccines being widely spread online echo the lies peddlers of health misinformation have been spreading in the past about other vaccines, for example, the vaccines against measles, mumps, and rubella.

The claims from the Disinformation Dozen range from “denying that COVID exists, claiming that false cures are in fact the way to solve COVID and not vaccination, decrying vaccines and decrying doctors as being in some way venal or motivated by other factors when they recommend vaccines,” Ahmed told NPR.

Many of the twelve, he said, have been spreading scientifically disproven medical claims and conspiracies for years.

Here is executive summary of the report:

Disinformation Dozen: The Sequel reveals that one month after tech CEOs vowed at a Congressional hearing to crack down on the twelve main “superspreaders” of vaccine disinformation, this “Disinformation Dozen” is continuing to operate across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. False and misleading content produced by the 12 individuals and their organizations was viewed up to 29 million times in the past month.

Key Findings
Big Tech’s failure to act on the Disinformation Dozen resulted in 105 pieces of vaccine disinformation being viewed up to 29 million times in the past month.

• Our previous report, The Disinformation Dozen, found that up to 65% of anti-vaccine content on social media originates from just 12 individuals, was raised with social media company CEOs at a Congressional hearing on 25 March 2021. The findings of the report were also raised with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by Senators Klobuchar and Luján, by Senator Warner and 12 state attorneys general.

• Social media platforms have not taken action on the Disinformation Dozen: ten remain on Facebook and Twitter, and nine remain on Instagram.

• In the month since publication of the Disinformation Dozen report, 105 posts from the accounts remaining on social media have breached the platforms’ stated policies for disinformation. They include posts falsely linking Covid vaccines to thousands of deaths, conspiracies claiming COVID was lab-engineered, posts describing masks on youngsters as “child abuse”, and posts suggesting that the vaccine makes women infertile.

• The Disinformation Dozen – including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joseph Mercola, and Ty and Charlene Bollinger – have repeatedly violated Facebook, Instagram and Twitter’spolicies. While some have been removed from a single platform, most remain active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

• We estimate that the anti-vaccine disinformation posted by these 12 individuals and their organizations in the past month has been seen up to 29 million times.

• Facebook, Instagram and Twitter must do what they promised and remove the remaining accounts of the Disinformation Dozen, in order to stop the proliferation of life-threatening anti-vaccine disinformation.