# Incident I00002: #VaccinateUS

* **Summary:** use both pro- and anti- topic messaging to create an artificial argument online. 

* **incident type**: campaign

* **Year started:** 2014

* **Countries:** Russia , World

* **Found via:** 

* **Date added:** 2019-02-24
 

| Technique | Description given for this incident |
| --------- | ------------------------- |
| [T0017 Promote online funding](../techniques/T0017.md) | I00002T002 Promote "funding" campaign |
| [T0018 Paid targeted ads](../techniques/T0018.md) | I00002T001 buy FB targeted ads |
| [T0019 Generate information pollution](../techniques/T0019.md) | I00002T003 create web-site - information pollution |
| [T0046 Search Engine Optimization](../techniques/T0046.md) | I00002T004 SEO optimisation/manipulation ("key words") |
| [T0056 Dedicated channels disseminate information pollution](../techniques/T0056.md) | I00002T003 create web-site - information pollution |
| [T0058 Legacy web content](../techniques/T0058.md) | I00002T005 legacy web content |
| [T0058 Legacy web content](../techniques/T0058.md) | I00002T006 hard to remove content and/or campaign/exploit TOS |


DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE - PLEASE ADD NOTES BELOW

Actor: IRA, individuals (e.g. Larry Cook).

Timeframe: 

Date: 

Presumed goals:
Physical damage to country? 

Method: 

* Targetted facebook ads (Larry Cook, targetting Washington State mothers, $1,776 to boost posts over 9 months). 
* Gofundme campaigns to pay for ads (Larry Cook)

Effects:

* “The U.S. anti-vax movement has been blamed for two outbreaks of measles that have infected some 300 people—mostly children—in New York and the Pacific Northwest.”

Counters:

* American Medical Association “warned social-media giants, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube, that they were helping to amplify the propaganda and confuse parents.”
* Gofundme banned antivaxxers: “Campaigns raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe’s terms of service and will be removed from the platform”.  Less than 10 campaigns reported as removed.

Related incidents:

Artefacts:

Search terms vaccination, anti-vaccination, “vaccine choice”. 

Notes:

Started by looking for vaccine-related content in my misinformation datasets
Then did google search for “antivax misinformation” to get references etc. 
Larry Cook runs “Stop Mandatory Vaccination”: “donations go “directly” to his bank account and funds “may be used to pay [his] personal bills.”


References;

* https://www.thedailybeast.com/brooklyn-hasidic-community-is-in-the-midst-of-a-dire-measles-outbreak
* https://www.thedailybeast.com/amazon-wont-take-a-stand-in-war-over-forrest-maready-book-the-autism-vaccine
* https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3739
* https://hub.jhu.edu/2018/08/24/russian-trolls-bots-spread-vaccine-misinformation/
* https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567 
* Arciga, [GoFundMe Bans Anti-Vaxxers Who Raise Money to Spread Misinformation](https://www.thedailybeast.com/gofundme-bans-anti-vaxxers-who-raise-money-to-spread-misinformation), Daily Beast 2019-03-22
* Arciga, [Anti-Vaxxer Larry Cook Has Weaponized Facebook Ads in War Against Science](https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-vaxxer-larry-cook-has-weaponized-facebook-ads-in-war-against-science), Daily Beast 2019-02-15
* Gofundmes (removed, but check archives) https://www.gofundme.com/help-save-vaccine-exemptions-in-washington-state https://www.gofundme.com/parents-wake-up-vaccines-kill 
* Markay, [Anti-Vaccine Facebook Ads Target Women in Measles-Stricken States](https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-vaccine-facebook-ads-target-women-in-measles-stricken-states/), Daily Beast 2019-02-14

Data