"Most Americans think vaccines are safe and effective, but watching Twitter gives people the impression that david brown Niatowski, the main author of this study and an assistant professor at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said in a statement that Broniatowski said that it turns out that many anti-vaccine tweets come from accounts with unknown sources, including robot or hacker accounts.
Although it is impossible to know exactly how many tweets are generated by robots and trolls, he added: "Our research results show that a large part of the discussion about vaccines on the Internet may be generated by a series of malicious actors who hide their agendas." . Five Dangerous Vaccination Misunderstandings
This study was published online in the American Journal of Public Health today (August 23rd), and analyzed thousands of tweets posted on Twitter from July 20 14 to September 20 17. The researchers randomly selected Twitter and Twitter samples that specifically refer to vaccines. Then, they use public data to identify accounts known to belong to robots or trolls, including "Russian troll" accounts identified by the US Congress. ("Robot" is an account that automatically handles content, although "cheater" is a person who distorts identity and deliberately promotes online speech. )
The researchers found that the so-called "content polluters" (that is, robot accounts that spread malicious software and unsolicited commercial content) * * * enjoyed 75% more anti-vaccine information on average than Twitter users.
The researchers said that these robot accounts seem to use anti-vaccine information as a "bait" to let followers click on advertisements and malicious website links. Ironically, content that promotes exposure to biological viruses may also promote exposure to computer viruses, "said Sandra Klaus Quinn, a co-author of the study and a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. The study found that,
Russian trolls and more complex robot accounts are also easier to post vaccination information on Twitter than ordinary Twitter users. But these troll accounts also publish information for and against vaccines-a strategy to promote discord.
Researchers say that these tweets often use polarized language, and associate these messages with political themes or concepts, such as "freedom", "democracy" and "constitutional rights".
For example, an anti-vaccine tweet under the "vaccination" tag related to the Russian troll account reads: "Compulsory vaccination violates the religious freedom protected by the Constitution." A tweet supporting the vaccine wrote under the label: "My freedom to vaccinate ends where others started. Mark Dreeser, a co-author of the study and a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said in a statement: "If this disease is dangerous to other children, then children should be vaccinated. "
"These trolls seem to regard vaccination as a wedge problem and contribute to the disharmony of American society." However, through the game between the two sides, they eroded the public's trust in vaccination and put us all at risk of infectious diseases. Viruses have no respect for national boundaries. "[Why does the vaccine myth persist]
It is necessary to study how to counter these anti-vaccine messages without inadvertently "feeding" the contents of trolls and robot accounts. The researchers wrote in their paper that these strategies include "emphasizing that a considerable part of anti-vaccination information is organized by' space turf' (that is, non-grassroots organizations)." "Space lawn" is a term. Researchers say that when people cover up the originator of information and make it look like it has grassroots support, when it doesn't,
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