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Type: campaign
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Name: #VaccinateUS
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Id: I00002
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Summary: use both pro- and anti- topic messaging to create an artificial argument online.
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Year started: 2014.0
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From country / To country: Russia / World
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Found via: nan
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Date added: 2019-02-24
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Techniques used:
Technique | Description given for this incident |
---|---|
T0017 Promote online funding | I00002T002 Promote "funding" campaign |
T0018 Paid targeted ads | I00002T001 buy FB targeted ads |
T0019 Generate information pollution | I00002T003 create web-site - information pollution |
T0046 Search Engine Optimization | I00002T004 SEO optimisation/manipulation ("key words") |
T0056 Dedicated channels disseminate information pollution | I00002T003 create web-site - information pollution |
T0058 Legacy web content | I00002T005 legacy web content |
T0058 Legacy web content | I00002T006 hard to remove content and/or campaign/exploit TOS |
DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE - PLEASE ADD NOTES BELOW
Actor: IRA, individuals (e.g. Larry Cook).
Timeframe:
Date:
Presumed goals: Physical damage to country?
Method:
- Targetted facebook ads (Larry Cook, targetting Washington State mothers, $1,776 to boost posts over 9 months).
- Gofundme campaigns to pay for ads (Larry Cook)
Effects:
- “The U.S. anti-vax movement has been blamed for two outbreaks of measles that have infected some 300 people—mostly children—in New York and the Pacific Northwest.”
Counters:
- American Medical Association “warned social-media giants, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube, that they were helping to amplify the propaganda and confuse parents.”
- Gofundme banned antivaxxers: “Campaigns raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe’s terms of service and will be removed from the platform”. Less than 10 campaigns reported as removed.
Related incidents:
Artefacts:
Search terms vaccination, anti-vaccination, “vaccine choice”.
Notes:
Started by looking for vaccine-related content in my misinformation datasets Then did google search for “antivax misinformation” to get references etc. Larry Cook runs “Stop Mandatory Vaccination”: “donations go “directly” to his bank account and funds “may be used to pay [his] personal bills.”
References;
- https://www.thedailybeast.com/brooklyn-hasidic-community-is-in-the-midst-of-a-dire-measles-outbreak
- https://www.thedailybeast.com/amazon-wont-take-a-stand-in-war-over-forrest-maready-book-the-autism-vaccine
- https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3739
- https://hub.jhu.edu/2018/08/24/russian-trolls-bots-spread-vaccine-misinformation/
- https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567
- Arciga, GoFundMe Bans Anti-Vaxxers Who Raise Money to Spread Misinformation, Daily Beast 2019-03-22
- Arciga, Anti-Vaxxer Larry Cook Has Weaponized Facebook Ads in War Against Science, Daily Beast 2019-02-15
- Gofundmes (removed, but check archives) https://www.gofundme.com/help-save-vaccine-exemptions-in-washington-state https://www.gofundme.com/parents-wake-up-vaccines-kill
- Markay, Anti-Vaccine Facebook Ads Target Women in Measles-Stricken States, Daily Beast 2019-02-14
Data