Article Author:
Associated Press
David Klepper
A French doctor, distressed by the number of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients showing up at his hospital, logged on to Facebook and asked people uploaded a video urging vaccination to Get vaccinated.
He was soon swarmed with dozens, hundreds and over a thousand hateful messages from the anti-vaccine extremist group known as V–V. The group operates in France and Italy, harassing doctors and public health officials, subverting government agencies, and attempting to disrupt vaccine clinics.
Alarmed by the abuse of its platform, Facebook opened several accounts linked to the group last December. But his V-V, which continued to use Facebook and other platforms and, like many anti-vaccine groups around the world, expanded its portfolio to include climate change denial and anti-democratic messages. couldn't stop.
"Let's take them home. They don't need to sleep anymore," reads one of his posts from the group. "Fight us." Reads another.
The largely unchecked nature of attacks on the uncontroversial health benefits of vaccines makes it difficult for social media companies to deliver even the most devastating kinds of misinformation, especially on an ongoing basis. It highlights clear limits that cannot be stopped without active effort.
Researchers at Reset, a UK-based nonprofit, have identified over 15,000 Facebook posts by V–V of him containing abusive or misleading information. The activity peaked in spring 2022, months after the platform announced its action against the organization. In a report on V–V activity, Reset researchers concluded that their continued presence on Facebook raises "questions about the efficacy and consistency of Meta's self-reported interventions." .
Facebook's parent company Meta said its 2021 action was not intended to eliminate all of his V–V content and would not participate in systematic harassment. It was intended to delete accounts found to be tainted. The Associated Press said it had removed 100 more accounts this week after notifying Facebook of the group's continued activity on its platform.
Meta strikes a balance between removing content from groups like V–V that clearly violates rules against harassment and dangerous misinformation without silencing innocent users. said he was trying to This can be especially difficult when it comes to the controversial vaccine issue.
"This is a highly hostile space and our efforts are ongoing. Since its initial removal, we have taken many steps against attempts to revive this network. ," a spokesperson for Mehta told his Associated Press.
V–V is also active on his Twitter, and Reset researchers found hundreds of accounts and thousands of posts from this group. Reset found that many of the accounts were created shortly after Facebook took action against the program last winter.
Following reports of the reset, Twitter said it had taken enforcement action against multiple accounts linked to V–V, but did not provide details of those actions.
V–V has proven particularly resilient to efforts to thwart it. Named after the movie V for Vendetta, the group is about a masked lone man seeking revenge on an authoritarian government. The group uses fake accounts to evade detection, often coordinating messages and activities on platforms such as Telegram that do not have Facebook's more offensive capabilities. Moderation policy.
Its adaptability is why the group is so hard to stop, according to Jack Stubbs, a researcher at Graphika, a data analytics company that tracks V–V activity. of he is one.
"They understand how the Internet works," Stubbs said.
Graphika estimated that the group will have 20,000 members in late 2021, but the core of members involved in online harassment efforts was small. In addition to Italy and France, Graphika's team found evidence of V–V's desire to establish chapters in Spain, England, Ireland, Brazil, and Germany, where a similar rebel movement known as Querdenken was active. did.
Groups and movements such as V–V and his Querdenken say there is evidence that far-right groups are using his COVID-19 and vaccine skepticism to expand their reach. Law enforcement agencies and extremist researchers are becoming increasingly vigilant.
Such groups are increasingly moving from online harassment to real-world behavior.
For example, in April he V–V used his Telegram to spray the group's symbol (his two red Vs in a circle) on public buildings and vaccine clinics. announced plans to pay the painted vandal his €10,000 bounty. The group then used Telegram to spread pictures of the vandalism.
A month before Facebook took action against V–V, Italian police raided the homes of 17 anti-vaccine activists in his restrictions.
Social media companies have struggled to keep up with a wave of vaccine misinformation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this week, Facebook and Instagram suspended the Children's Health Defense, a leading anti-vaccine organization headed by Robert Kennedy Jr.
It's a delicate balance between moderation and free protection. Joshua Tucker of New York University is co-director of NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics and serves as his senior advisor at Kroll, a technology, government and economic consulting firm.
Striking the right balance is especially important as social media has emerged as an important source of global news and information. Leaving too much inappropriate content can mislead users. Removing too much will make users mistrust the platform.
"It's dangerous for society to move in a direction where no one feels they can trust information," Tucker said.
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