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The sneaky way anti-vaxx groups are remaining undetected on Facebook

Anti-vaccination groups on Facebook are relying on an interesting tactic to avoid detection from those who don’t share their beliefs. The groups are changing their names to euphemisms like ‘dance party’ or ‘dinner party’ to skirt rules put in place by the social media giant. Harsher bans were put in place by Facebook to crack down on dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 and subsequent vaccines. The groups are largely private and difficult to find on the social networking site, but still retain a large user base and have learned how to swap out detectable language to remain unseen. One major ‘dance party’ group has over 40,000 followers and has stopped allowing new users to join due to public backlash. The backup group for ‘Dance Party’, known as ‘Dinner Party’ and created by the same moderators, has more than 20,000 followers. Other anti-vaxx influencers on Instagram have adopted similar tactics, such as referring to vaccinated people as ‘swimmers’ and the act of vaccination as joining a ‘swim club’. These devious tactics have been recognised by governments internationally, as there is mounting pressure for officials to increase pressure on the social media platforms to do more to contain vaccine misinformation. An administrator for the ‘Dance Party’ wrote that beating Facebook’s moderating system “feels like a badge of honour”, as they urged users to stay away from ‘unapproved words’. Using code words and euphemisms is not new among the anti-vaxx community, as it borrows from a playbook used by extremists on Facebook and other social networking sites for many years. Image credit: Shutterstock

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The sneaky way anti-vaxx groups are remaining undetected on Facebook