Reality Team, the Disinformation Dozen, and the fight for herd immunity
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Major social-media sites Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube have long been criticized for condoning, and thus tacitly supporting, anti-vaccine and other health care-related disinformation. But on Thursday afternoon, one of the most notorious sources for health care and anti-vaccine disinformation, Erin Elizabeth, announced (ironically, on Twitter) that she had been blocked from accessing her “Health Nut News” Facebook and Instagram pages, and that they had been removed from the sites.
Elizabeth, who the Center for Countering Digital Hate identified as one of its “Disinformation Dozen,” is a notorious source for health care and Covid-19 disinformation. Her Pages and posts were removed for self-promotion using what Facebook describes as inauthentic behavior and spammy behavior, not for their anti-vaccine content. She has claimed that “vaccines are part of a medical-industry plan to create a chronically ill population” and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Her Facebook account was rife with “natural” remedies for the disease
Breaking news: I was just deplatformed on ALL platforms: ALL my Facebook pages and groups and even my personal page totaling millions. All my Instagram pages including my public page. No violations. Everything gone. Even my aunt who is my assistant. They took her page!!!!!!!
— Erin Elizabeth Health Nut News (@unhealthytruth) May 13, 2021
According to the report, 65 percent of all disinformation regarding Covid-19 vaccines on Twitter and Facebook originates from the Disinformation Dozen. Elizabeth is the fourth of these 12 sources to be removed from Facebook and its Instagram image-sharing app.