New from me: This week, an anti-vaccine Instagram account urged its 52,000 followers to “go visit Bill Gates Instagram and let him know what you think.” They did. His Instagram page is now overrun with 225K-plus comments accusing him of crimes of humanity. https://www.wsj.com/articles/bill-gates-is-targeted-by-social-media-mobs-11587133938
Bill Gates has always been a target for trolls but that’s intensified during the pandemic & with his defense of the W.H.O., which is making him an even bigger target of the far right, conspiracy theorists & anti-vaccine groups. https://www.wsj.com/articles/bill-gates-is-targeted-by-social-media-mobs-11587133938
Facebook said it would examine the behavior to see if it was more than “organized free speech” (which is allowed). YouTube removed one video we flagged & said the other two were borderline. Twitter said it was focused on removing Covid-19 misinformation that caused harm.
Oh! Must credit @noUpside who publicly flagged this issue with Gates’ IG a few days ago. Brigading isn’t banned by the platforms unless the accounts are fake / bots / risk real-world harm, they say. https://twitter.com/noupside/status/1250201014533160960?s=21 https://twitter.com/noUpside/status/1250201014533160960