https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=272282093821420
How coronavirus 'changes the game' for the anti-vaccination movement
As humanity waits impatiently for a coronavirus vaccine, a determined minority is exploiting the crisis to push the health debate down a path of alternative truth.
On social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, global networks of influencers share memes, flood comment sections and promote videos aimed at white-anting a drug that does not yet exist.
Some have even claimed the coronavirus pandemic is a manufactured crisis designed to allow a cabal of billionaires, Big Pharma and global bureaucrats led by philanthropist Bill Gates to use a vaccine as a ruse to implant microchips in people.
Not everyone in the anti-vaccine camp buys into those conspiracies, but amid the fear and disruption caused by the pandemic there has been a marked uptick in attention to the topic on Facebook, for example, as seen in this chart below, which uses data from the social analysis tool, CrowdTangle.
Such beliefs can become a "self-sealing world view", said Dr Sander van der Linden, head of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Laboratory at Cambridge University.
"If you look at COVID-19, for example, the conspiracy that this is a secret global plot to justify mandatory global vaccination easily fits into that world view," he said.
These COVID-19 conspiracies have helped to rally the broad coalition of those opposing mandatory vaccinations, in a shift that threatens to further undermine trust in government and health institutions.
And despite Australia's high immunisation rates and a first-class health system, we are not immune to the influence of this global phenomenon known as "vaccine hesitancy".
That embrace was on display on Saturday in rallies around Australia organised by the Australian branch of Millions March Against Mandatory Vaccinations (MMAMV). In Sydney, a crowd of several hundred voiced their concerns about, not just vaccinations, but the dangers of 5G wireless technology, the coronavirus lockdown, China's role in the global pandemic and general government overreach into people's lives.
This movement has been boosted by the ubiquity of social-media use which has proven to be a fertile breeding ground for polarising debates — especially when science is in the crosshairs.
When the discredited coronavirus pseudo-documentary, Plandemic, was released online earlier this month, for example, anti-vaccination networks on sites like Facebook and Instagram helped it go viral and trigger a spike in complementary mainstream media interest — as can be seen below in this data provide by the Australian media-monitoring firm Streem.
Australian-run Facebook page 99% unite Main Group "it's us or them", which helped promote recent anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne and also dabbles in anti-vaccination material, was cited as being one of the Facebook groups behind its spread.
And other Australians such as influencer Taylor Winterstein and wellness blogger Therese Kerr, mother of model Miranda Kerr, have also helped to promote the Plandemic video on Instagram and other platforms and spread their views on vaccine scepticism to a growing band of followers.
Hundreds of people have gathered in Hyde Park in a mass protest against the coronavirus lockdown.
Those in attendance are ignoring social distancing rules and can be seen standing close to one another near Speaker's Corner.
Several people can be seen holding placards and banners including slogans like "freedom over fear" as police, including some on horseback, look on.
One journalist estimated that several hundred people are in Hyde Park on Saturday afternoon (May 16).
He said: "Several hundred people in Hyde Park, Central London, protesting against the lockdown and breaking the social distancing rules.
"Police trying to move them. Some here opposing those opposing the lockdown."
Protesters, Rioters, Looters, and Revolutionaries, Be Aware There Are Government Agents Among You
saturday may 30, 2020
With protests, riots, looting, and revolutionary acts rising over the last few days across the country, here is a bit of information for participants in these activities to keep in mind: There are likely government agents among you. These government agents are undercover and taking part in the activities with you. Their role may be to take down names and inform on activities; their role may to act as provocateurs, seeking to lead you and others to do or say particular things; their role may be to make arrests.
This fact of life in America came to mind when I looked at a Friday Twitter post by journalist Luke Rudkowski. Rudkowski’s tweet includes a video clip in which a uniformed cop is among a group of people, many of whom seem to not be too happy with the cop. The cop is doling out some physical abuse, particularly on an individual he is trying to restrain, and receiving some physical abuse as well from several people in the crowd. It appears that the cop may be on the verge of being overpowered and seriously hurt. Indeed, it looks like a situation where he may pull out a gun to protect himself.
In the latter part of the video, one more person rushes into the area of conflict and seems to engage in a scuffle with the cop, drawing the cop out of the area and even chasing the cop off. At least that is how it seemed the first time I watched the video.
Something seemed off about how the two men interacted in the latter part of the video, so I watched a few more times.
Watching the video over and over, it looks more and more like the man who had seemed to come in to scuffle with the cop is actually pulling the cop out of the fray as a friend or coworker may do, while maybe putting on some ruse of conflict to ensure the extraction works. Indeed, at the end of the video clip, after a few viewings, it sure looks like neither man is chasing after the other. Instead, once clear of the danger that had confronted the cop, both men appear to jog off together.
It seems impossible to be certain just from looking at the video clip, but what appears to be happening here is an undercover cop, posing as a member of the protest, riot, or whatever came in to save the uniformed cop’s bacon or to prevent a further escalation of the physical conflict.
The Anti-vaxxers Are Winning the Battle on Facebook
Anti-vaccination Facebook Pages are currently better at attracting undecided users to their
cause than pro-science counterparts, researchers have found.
As social media sites struggle to purge misinformation and conspiracy theories from their
platforms, including campaigns relating to COVID-19, a study has now shown how differing
stances on vaccination have evolved and competed over time. The project, led by Neil
Johnson, professor of physics at George Washington University, analyzed Facebook
communities containing close to 100 million individuals, grouping them into "clusters" to
map how members interact, shift and share links.
Why Are Australians Chanting “Arrest Bill Gates”
At Protests? This Wild Facebook Group Has The Answers.
On Sunday, a little over 100 people met on the steps of state parliament in Melbourne, Australia, and began chanting "arrest Bill Gates".
While still relatively small, it was the country’s largest lockdown protest yet, held in violation of state laws mandating social distancing in the coronavirus pandemic. And it got pretty wild. Speakers canvassed theories ranging from the coronavirus numbers being inflated to 5G causing health issues to the government trying to microchip citizens. A handful of unruly protesters attacked police. All up, 10 people were arrested, and the whole event attracted a lot of publicity, with footage of the Bill Gates chant going viral on Twitter.
The crowd has broken into chants of "arrest Bill Gates" at the anti-lockdown protest at Parliament House in Melbourne @theage. The crowd has grown considerably since midday.
11.6K people are talking about this
Many watching had the same question: Why Gates? Why did a protest against lockdowns involve so many unrelated — and imported — conspiracy theories?
One speaker, Fanos Panayides, is the founder of an extremely active Facebook group called "99% unite Main Group 'it's us or them'" that has rapidly become one of the biggest hubs of resistance against Australia's coronavirus response.
It is populated by a colourful mix of coronavirus deniers, anti-vaxxers, 5G truthers, sovereign citizens, QAnon believers and other fringe conspiracy theorists. And all of their beliefs have cross-pollinated and converged to create a virulent — if not entirely coherent — umbrella movement against coronavirus lockdown measures.
The anti-lockdown movement remains small in Australia but, according to one poll, 1 in 10 people think social distancing measures should be removed immediately. The restrictions are already being gradually eased across the country, following a largely successful response to the coronavirus, with fewer than 100 deaths and a major slowing of new cases.
But in Panayides’s group, that doesn’t matter. Since it was started on April 8, the group has grown to more than 37,000 members who have made more than 900,000 posts, comments and reactions, according to social media analytics site Crowdtangle.
No comments:
Post a Comment