The Inoculation -- Vaccine Misinformation and Society

As Pandemic Emergency Is Lifted, Have Disinformation Spreaders Moved On?

The WHO has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a public health emergency of international concern. But does it mean that spreaders of pandemic disinformation have dispersed and gone dormant?

We discuss the persistence of pandemic disinformation with Tommaso Canetta, who works at Pagella Politica/Facta in Italy. He also edits regular fact-checking briefs for the European Digital Media Observatory: https://edmo.eu/fact-checking-briefs/ These briefs compare how much disinformation on the pandemic, climate, and other topics is tackled by fact-checkers in Europe.

You can find all our past episodes with transcripts here: https://www.theinoculation.com/episodes/ . Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

ChatGPT -- What Is It and Should we Be Worried about Generative AI?

ChatGPT, a user-friendly AI tool that generates text in response to keywords, is expected to cause major disruptions in the media, education, and various creative jobs. In late March, the Italian privacy regulator effectively banned it.

As societies grapple with the tool’s impact and controversies, we are looking back at our interview with AI researcher Micah Musser, who works at the Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, and reconsidering his team’s findings regarding AI’s potential to turbocharge disinformation.

You can find all our past episodes with transcripts here: https://www.theinoculation.com/episodes/ . Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Where is Russian Disinformation Headed?

In this episode, we talked to Christiern Santos Rasmussen about the possible future of Russian disinformation tactics. Together with his team he researched how disinformation actors tweak their message for the countries they operate in. For example, in Poland, claiming that Russia only wants peace would be a hard sell, so these actors double down on anti-EU propaganda.

You can read more about Seymour Hersh’s allegations on the Nordstream sabotage, mentioned in the episode, in Coda Story’s article: https://www.codastory.com/newsletters/seymour-hersh-nord-stream/ 

Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Why Did a Vision for a Modern City Turn into a Conspiracy Theory?

Being able to reach key facilities, like schools and shops, within 15 minutes, would make city life really comfortable, right? Not if you ask conspiracy theories, mobilizing around the world to blend opposition to the idea of 15-minute cities with anti-vaccination and far-right sentiment. They think that 15-minute cities are all about population control.

 

In this episode we explore how the protests, online abuse against proponents of the 15-minute city idea, and an explosion of climate deniers’ hashtags illustrate how conspiracies keep reincarnating.

 

Older episode with Eszter Szenes: https://www.theinoculation.com/are-antivaxxers-more-likely-to-be-pro-putin/

The Great Reset conspiracy: https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/the-great-reset-conspiracy-in-australia/ 

 

Take-up of the 15 minute city conspiracy in the UK: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/26/world/15-minute-cities-conspiracy-theory-climate-intl/index.html 

 

Far-right presence: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/24/far-right-trying-to-infiltrate-low-traffic-protests-campaigners-warn 

 

Why Do Far-Right and Far-Left Parties Benefit from Social Media Algorithms?

How do algorithms facilitate the rise of political fringes in Europe? And what makes it worthy for political opportunists to be radical? We invited Prof. Miguel Poiares Maduro, who has an academic background in law, governance and politics, to reflect on the various threats to democracy from social media, and to zoom in on his home country, Portugal.

Prof. Poiares Maduro also chairs the executive board of the European Digital Media Observatory, so we asked him about responses to anti-Ukrainian disinformation across the political spectrum. Here are the links to the past episodes mentioned:

Antivaxxers and pro-Kremlin ideas: https://www.theinoculation.com/are-antivaxxers-more-likely-to-be-pro-putin/

How the Portuguese far right opposed vaccine mandates and got an electoral boost: https://www.theinoculation.com/portugal-is-europes-vaccine-hero-losing-its-special-balance-allowing-right-wing-parties-to-flourish/

Ales Herasimenko predicts that antivaxx movements will overflow into political ruptures: https://www.theinoculation.com/the-inoculation-episode-4/ 

Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

The Inoculation’s (AI-Assisted) News Roundup: ChatGPT, Finland and Twitter

What are the latest news on disinformation and vaccine hesitancy? We discuss our top picks — and discuss the pros and cons of AI-assisted news review. Here's a link to our earlier episode on ChatGPT: 

Links to the news discussed:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitter-sudden-death-vaccine-conspiracies

https://edmo.eu/2022/12/06/died-suddenly-yet-another-conspiracy-video-about-covid-19-vaccines-reigniting-disinformation-with-the-same-old-hoaxes/

https://medium.com/dfrlab/how-china-funds-foreign-influence-campaigns-72d547ad0771

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/world/europe/finland-misinformation-classes.html 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1878060/insects-in-food-give-rise-to-lithuania-s-latest-wave-of-conspiracy-theories 

Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Introducing Season 5: How Anti-Vaccine Views Reshaped Our Politics

This season The Inoculation is focusing on politics and activism. We will explore how anti-vaccine views have left a mark on different political and activist movements in Europe and beyond. Daiva will be focusing on these issues as a Policy Leader fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.

Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts,Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Does Elon Musk’s Ownership of Twitter Undermine Its Role as a Public Space?

Elon Musk is making sweeping changes at Twitter. Does it mean that anti-vaccine disinformation and violent extremism will flourish?

This is our last episode this year. Tune in when we’re back in January!

Sources:

• @ElonJet: https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/14/elon-jet-the-twitter-account-tracking-elon-musks-flights-was-permanently-suspended/ 
  Musk and Qanon: https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pjkw/elon-musk-is-now-promoting-qanon
• End of COVID misinformation policy: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63796832 
• Anti-vax propaganda and hate speech on the rise: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-12-08/covid-misinformation-spiking-on-twitter-elon-musk/101742276 
• Climate denialism on the rise: https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/11/17/how-climate-disinformation-is-spreading-after-elon-musks-twitter-takeover & https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/02/climate-change-denialism-flooding-twitter-scientists 
• ISIS is back: https://gnet-research.org/2022/11/18/islamic-state-supporters-on-twitter-how-is-new-twitter-handling-an-old-problem/ 
• It’s worse outside the Anglophone sphere: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03552-4.pdf 
• Prominent Ukrainians subject to ghost ban? https://twitter.com/maksymeristavi/status/1602793279015337988?t=RKEQB2Jxj4FY2YnE6lL-sA&s=19 
• EU plans to regulate Twitter: https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-social-media-misinformation-fd4227b138878a5b0e5129a4bdd5bac0 

Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts,Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Individually, we are on Mastodon too: Daiva at @daivarep@dju.social and Eva at @evavonschaper@mastodon.social

Twitter’s Turmoil Was Predicted By Disinformation Researchers

With Twitter in turmoil, we are inviting you to revisit our conversation with WF Thomas, a disinformation researcher. Eva talked to him while working on a story on audio disinformation, which was part of her Transatlantic Media Fellowship by the Heinrich Boell Foundation Washington, DC. You can read the BBC reporting on Russia’s Twitter network here and the New Yorker’s article on regulation here.

Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts,Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Individually, we are on Mastodon too: Daiva at @daivarep@dju.social and Eva at @evavonschaper@mastodon.social

Who are the Doctors Who Spread Disinformation and Why Do They Do It?

As Dr. Oz loses his bid for a seat in the US Senate and the American Board of Internal Medicine moves to strip a falsehood-spreading doctor’s qualifications, we look at the phenomenon of medical doctors spreading COVID-19 disinformation on both sides of the Atlantic.

In this episode, we reference our earlier work:

- On homeopathy: https://www.theinoculation.com/homeopathy-a-pseudoscientific-gateway-to-anti-vaccine-views-and-covid-19-denialism/

- On a Swedish team that got an interview with Andrew Wakefield: https://www.theinoculation.com/how-anti-vaccination-movements-pull-parents-in/ 

Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation. Individually, we are on Mastodon too: Daiva at @daivarep@dju.social and Eva at @evavonschaper@mastodon.social

 

Links: 

https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/210324-The-Disinformation-Dozen.pdf

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0256-5

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dr-oz-shouldnt-be-a-senator-or-a-doctor/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/27/anti-vaxxers-making-at-least-25m-a-year-from-publishing-on-substack