How anti-vaccine groups are camouflaging themselves on Facebook
Certain anti-vaccination groups are changing their names on Facebook in an attempt at evading bans from the social network, NBC News reports. Euphemisms include names like "Dance Party" or "Dinner Party," which then signal to members to use coded language and words to fit those themes.
For example, during discussions that typically "perpetuate debunked theories about the vaccines," members write "danced" or "drank beer" to mean "got the vaccine," per NBC News. "Pizza" often refers to Pfizer, and "Moana" to Moderna. Users generally "play around with unofficial language about dancing to create more coded language," NBC News writes. And the charade contains on Instagram — some anti-vax influencers reportedly refer to the vaccinated as "swimmers" and the act of vaccination as "joining a 'swim club.'"
Such tactics have been "ratcheting up" amid increased White House pressure on social media to "do more to contain vaccine misinformation," NBC News writes. But the playbook itself has been around for some time; anti-vaccination activists, as well as other internet extremists, have employed "leetspeak" — or modified language that replaces letters with numbers or symbols — to circumvent online detection before now, as well.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Leetspeak is "part of the culture of anti-vaccination activists," siad Joan Donovan, research director at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Its rampant usage "underscores" the difficulty Facebook has in containing vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation, writes NBC News. Read more at NBC News.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
People of the year 2024
In the Spotlight Remember the people who hit the headlines this year?
By The Week UK Published
-
The Christmas quiz 2024
From the magazine Test your grasp of current affairs and general knowledge with our quiz
By The Week UK Published
-
Crossword: December 25, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials say
Speed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was right
Speed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular stories
Speed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an ocean
Speed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mind
Speed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published