Volunteers are busting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories with decoy Facebook groups.
It was the pandemic's wave of anti-vaccine content that prompted Dave and Richard to embark on their plan.Although the duo have only met in real life once, they now run multiple "honeypot" Facebook groups that have thousands of members from all over the world.
Dave uses his own personal experience of conspiracy theories to strike up a rapport with those in the group. He began to question his previous worldviews after he realised that the people promoting conspiracies were conning him. Their nightmare scenarios, he says, never seemed to come true. Brian's encounters with the underbelly of social media coincided with an incredibly difficult personal time. Towards the end of 2019, he lost his job. He has multiple sclerosis, and around the same time, his condition started getting worse. Then the pandemic hit.
Brian even credits Dave and Richard with saving his life. If he hadn't encountered their group, Brian says, "I might not be here. I went to some dark places.""I'm in a better place," he says. "I'm in a proper home environment now, I've got rugrats running around my feet again." His face lights up as he speaks of his grandchildren.
In an interview, Facebook's vice president for Northern Europe Steve Hatch acknowledged that the company has "a big responsibility to ensure people are seeing accurate information." This includes Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members that have sprung up in recent months, dedicated to stories of people allegedly injured by Covid vaccines. We've seen several of these groups rapidly become popular. They're often filled with scary stories, but just as frequently lacking in details and hard evidence.
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