The unwitting are the target of Covid-19 falsehoods online


Rockwell, who was targeted by vaccine opponents after she posted about her miscarriage online, looks at her Instagram page with her hijacked post marked as fake news during an interview at her home in Jenks, Oklahoma. Individuals across the country, like Rockwell, have found themselves swept into the misinformation maelstrom, their online posts or their very identities hijacked by anti-vaccine activists and others peddling lies about the Covid-19 outbreak. — AP

Dr Michelle Rockwell lost a pregnancy in December and shared her heartache with her 30,000 Instagram followers. Weeks later, she received the Covid-19 vaccine and posted about that, too.

By February, Rockwell was getting past the grief and finally starting to experience moments of joy. But then, to her horror, social media users began using her posts to spread the false claim that she miscarried as a result of the shot.

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Misinformation , fake news , hijacked posts

   

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