The fomented mistrust in our news media which has made settled science become controversial now is shown to detrimentally affect our most precious resource—our children and grandchildren — regarding vaccinations. The news media seems too slow to pick up the mantle on this issue. The study, “Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate” was accepted May 22, 2018 and published Online August 23, 2018 on Science Daily and in just a few media outlets.
Science Daily published, “Bots and Russian trolls influenced vaccine discussion on Twitter, research finds: New study discovers tactics similar to those used during 2016 US election,” According to the Science Daily release, “social media bots and Russian trolls promoted discord and spread false information about vaccines on Twitter using tactics similar to those at work during the 2016 United States presidential election, according to new research led by the George Washington University, . . . .with unsolicited commercial content and disruptive materials — shared anti-vaccination messages 75 percent more than average Twitter users.” Yes, you should read the entire story on Science Daily and subscribe to get daily emails from them.
You can read the abstract of the actual George Washington University study, which will make you even more concerned. David A. Broniatowski, Amelia M. Jamison, SiHua Qi, Lulwah AlKulaib, Tao Chen, Adrian Benton, Sandra C. Quinn, Mark Dredze. “Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate.” American Journal of Public Health, 2018.
How big an issue is this?
Enormous and life threatening.
Our grandchildren get series of vaccines over eighteen months. There are outbreaks of measles worldwide. “Waning vaccine use has contributed to measles outbreaks in several U.S. communities in recent years, including a 2015 outbreak in California that began at Disneyland,” according to Reuters, link below. The flu is a serious danger annually.
According to Science Daily, “[t]he researchers found the tweets used polarizing language linking vaccination to controversial issues in American society, such as racial and economic
disparities.
“These trolls seem to be using vaccination as a wedge issue, promoting discord in American society,” Mark Dredze, a team member and professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins, said. “However, by playing both sides, they erode public trust in vaccination, exposing us all to the risk of infectious diseases. Viruses don’t respect national boundaries.”
According to Reuters, the study found that “Russian trolls* appeared to promote discord rather than favor one side of the vaccine debate, while bots** that spread malware*** appeared to be more solidly anti-vaccine. The bots and trolls were much busier, and shared more extreme views.” Science Daily added more players that mean to hurt us, “human users or ‘cyborgs’ — hacked accounts that are sometimes taken over by bots.”
When I sat as a family court judge, too many cases came before me with disputes by warring parents on this issue, one of whom wanted their babies and children vaccinated and one who did not. Yes, I heard arguments from both sides of the vaccination issue similar to the actual tweets reported by Reuters:
““In the antivaccine camp, there were #vaccinateUS tweets like this one: “Dont get #vaccines. Illuminati are behind it.”
And, like this: “At first our government creates diseases then it creates #vaccines. what’s next?!”
Or this one designed to target socioeconomic tensions: “Apparently only the elite get ‘clean’ #vaccines. And what do we, normal ppl get?!”
Pro-vaccine tweets were also extreme, like this example: “#vaccines are a parents choice. Choice of a color of a little coffin.”
Or this one: “Do you still treat your kids with leaves? No? And why don’t you #vaccinate them? It’s medicine!”“
As a family court judge, I also heard expert witnesses in my courtroom providing scientific studies that vaccinations did not cause autism or other horrors, but, without vaccination, the child and other babies and children would be in danger. I did not realize until this George Washington University study that the internet and Twitter was being used for the last several years to create and foment the controversy over the issue in America. And, this Grandma recently published a post that new parents are primarily going to social media as a resource,
“The First Pregnancy and Baby Advice and Information Has Changed Beyond Recognition With Our Grandchildren’s Generation.”
This false, misleading and downright dangerous information about child rearing, just to foment more controversy in our lives, adversely affects our grandchildren. As said in Reuters:
“The deliberate attempts of bots and trolls to misinform, mislead, and otherwise discourage parents from vaccinating their children are undermining one of the strongest, most positive medical and public health tools that parents and healthcare providers can use to protect children.”
Please share the scientific study that shows malicious manipulation of our populace
regarding the issue of vaccinations through social media intentionally intending to cause harm to us as Americans and to American children!
Here is information from a reliable source that should be passed on to the parents of our grandchildren, and frankly to anyone who has children or is considering having children. Here are some excerpts and a link to Mayo Clinic.
“Childhood vaccines: Tough questions, straight answers” from the Mayo Clinic Newsletter which begins its informative clinical information with “Childhood vaccines protect children from a variety of serious or potentially fatal diseases, including diphtheria, measles, polio and whooping cough (pertussis). If these diseases seem uncommon — or even unheard of — it’s usually because these vaccines are doing their job.”
“[A] natural chickenpox (varicella) infection could lead to pneumonia. A natural polio infection could cause permanent paralysis. A natural mumps infection could lead to deafness. A natural Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) infection could result in permanent brain damage. Vaccination can help prevent these diseases and their potentially serious complications.”
With regard to autism: “[v]accines do not cause autism. Despite much controversy on the topic, researchers haven’t found a connection between autism and childhood vaccines. In fact, the original study that ignited the debate years ago has been retracted.”
Where are our newspapers and media? As of the writing of this post, this is it!
Russian trolls and Twitter bots exploit vaccine controversy, by Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post, August 23, 2018
“Russian trolls ‘spreading discord’ over vaccine safety online: Study discovered several accounts, now known to belong to the same Russian trolls who interfered in the US election, tweeting about vaccines,” by Jessica Glenza, August 23, 2018, The Guardian.
“Trolls, Bots and Anti-Vaxxers: Researchers say Russia-linked social media accounts tweeted for and against vaccinations to stoke discord in the U.S.,” by Gaby Galvin, August 23, 2018, U.S. News & World Report.
How big an issue is this?
Enormous and life threatening.
Please become a vocal transmitter of this information to protect our children and grandchildren. Even if our children and grandchildren are vaccinated, we should pass this post on to everyone to hope to reach those who are reluctant to vaccinate.
Joy,
Mema
For those of us who need assistance with internet terms, here are definitions from google.
*A troll is a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers.
**A bot, short for “robot,” is an automated program that runs over the Internet. Some bots run automatically, while others only execute commands when they receive specific input. There are many different types of bots, but some common examples include web crawlers, chat room bots, and malicious bots.
***“Malware” is short for “malicious software,” computer programs designed to infiltrate and damage computers without the users consent. “Malware” is the general term covering all the different types of threats to your computer safety such as viruses, spyware, worms, trojans, rootkits and so on.
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