Why Russian trolls stoked US vaccine debates

Also, lower vaccination rates will lead to higher death, illness, and disability rates, and weaken our country.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/23/health/russia-trolls-vaccine-debate-study/index.html

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN
Updated 9:41 AM ET, Fri August 24, 2018

Russia's meddling online went beyond the 2016 US presidential election and into public health, amplifying online debates about vaccines, according to a new study.

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Russia's meddling online went beyond the 2016 US presidential election and into public health, amplifying online debates about vaccines, according to a new study.

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These known Russian troll accounts were tied to the Internet Research Agency, a company backed by the Russian government that specializes in online influence operations.

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"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.
For instance, "one of the tweets we saw said something like 'Only the elite get clean vaccines,' which on its own seemed strange," he said. 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.

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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 also uncovered a wide range of hidden online agendas.

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By 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.
"This is consistent with a strategy of promoting discord across a range of controversial topics -- a known tactic employed by Russian troll accounts. 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.
Overall, the researchers found that Russian trolls, sophisticated bots and "content polluters" tweeted about vaccination at significantly higher rates compared with average users.

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"The Internet Research Agency has been known to engage in certain behaviors. There's the one everybody knows about, which is the election. They also tend to engage in other topics that promote discord in American society," Broniatowski said.

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"I don't know if it would seem strange once you understand their goal, which is basically to divide both sides against the middle. They're going to grab onto all of those social issues. So for example: black lives matter, all lives matter; immigrants are destroying America, immigrants are great for America," Warren said.
"It's basically the hot-button political issues of the day. They're happy to grab onto whatever is salient," he said. "I think that they want us focused on our own problems so that we don't focus on them.

"If most of our energies are focused internally with divisions inside of the United States -- or divisions between the United States and, say, Europe -- that leaves a window open for Russia to expand its sphere of influence.

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