![]() Report: Russian trolls learned from 'House of Cards' But the researchers and other experts have some ideas about why Russia might want to fuel America’s vaccine debate. The study remains limited, in that it’s difficult to determine with 100% accuracy who is behind a Twitter account, and “the Internet Research Agency is certainly not the only set of trolls out there,” Broniatowski said.Īdditionally, it’s even more difficult to determine an account’s true intent. Overall, the researchers found that Russian trolls, sophisticated bots and “content polluters” tweeted about vaccination at significantly higher rates compared with average users. Such strategies may undermine the public health: normalizing these debates may lead the public to question long-standing scientific consensus regarding vaccine efficacy,” they wrote. “This is consistent with a strategy of promoting discord across a range of controversial topics – a known tactic employed by Russian troll accounts. Among those tweets with the hashtag, 43% were pro-vaccine, 38% were anti-vaccine, and the remaining 19% were neutral.īy posting a variety of anti-, pro- and neutral tweets and directly confronting vaccine skeptics, trolls and bots “legitimize” the vaccine debate, the researchers wrote in the study. ![]() When it came to the Russian troll accounts, the researchers found 253 tweets containing the #VaccinateUS hashtag among their sample. His part-time job is Russian troll hunter The researchers also uncovered a wide range of hidden online agendas. While examining those vaccine-related tweets, the researchers discovered many bot accounts, including “content polluters,” which are accounts that disseminate malware or unsolicited commercial content. The researchers were stunned to find Russian troll accounts tweeting about vaccines, but unraveling why they would stoke the vaccine debate was mind-boggling, too.įor the study, the researchers collected and analyzed nearly 1.8 million tweets from July 2014 through September 2017. Since the start of the new study, most of the tweets have been deleted as part of Twitter’s efforts to suspend Russian troll accounts, but Broniatowski said that he and his colleagues stored several in their own archives. A Pew Research Center study found last year that the vast majority of Americans support vaccine requirements. ![]() The consensus among doctors is that vaccines are safe, effective and important for public health, as they help reduce the spread of preventable disease and illness. After all, anti-vaccine messages tend to characterize vaccines as risky for all people, regardless of class or socioeconomic status, the researchers wrote in the study. “One of the things about them that was weird was that they tried to – or they seemed to try to – relate vaccines to issues in American discourse, like racial disparities or class disparities that are not traditionally associated with vaccination,” Broniatowski said.įor instance, “one of the tweets we saw said something like ‘Only the elite get clean vaccines,’ which on its own seemed strange,” he said. Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesĬoncerned about vaccine safety? Here are the facts A recent outbreak of measles has some doctors encouraging vaccination as the best way to prevent measles and its spread. ![]() Diane Lichtman, right, hold her during a visit to the Miami Children's Hospital on Januin Miami, Florida. Amanda Porro, M.D administers a measles vaccination to Sophie Barquin,4, as her mother Gabrielle Barquin and Miami Children's Hospital R.N. Miami Children's Hospital pediatrician Dr.
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