Twitter/Samuel Braslow
Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.
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While anti-vaxxer protests at schools have become increasingly common in recent months, particularly as mask-mandates have come into force, the violent rhetoric spewed at Wednesday’s protests shows just how extreme these incidents are becoming.Bagheri was captured on video by Samuel Braslow, a reporter for the Beverly Hills Courier, shouting at the children: “This is rape. They’re trying to rape our children with this poison. They’re going to rape their lives away.”
At another point, a protester shouts out that asking children to wear masks is “child abuse.”
Disinformation researchers believe that groups like Bagheri’s are beginning to mimic the actions of other extremist groups.“Some small, hateful anti-vaxx groups, like this one in LA, are starting to look a lot like the Westboro Baptist Church,” John Scott Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog organization at the University of Toronto, tweeted.
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