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Short Wave

Vaccines, Misinformation, And The Internet (Part 1)

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.76K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2020

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the first of two episodes exploring anti-vaccine misinformation online, we hear the story of what happened to Cincinnati-area pediatrician Nicole Baldwin when her pro-vaccine TikTok video made her the target of harassment and intimidation from anti-vaccine activists online. Renee DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory explains their tactics and goals.

You can see Dr. Baldwin's original TikTok here.

Renee DiResta has written about how some anti-vaccine proponents harass, intimidate, and spread misinformation online here.

Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

0:07.2

This song from 2007, The Cupid Shuffle, is pretty big on TikTok.

0:15.9

TikTok is a social media app where users make and share short videos.

0:20.1

Many of them using and reusing viral sounds or song clips.

0:24.3

This one is pretty popular with people making dance and exercise videos.

0:31.5

But on January 10th of this year, Nicole Baldwin got a different idea.

0:36.8

I had just posted my first video two days prior, so I was very new on TikTok and I'll admit

0:46.0

I enjoy The Cupid Shuffle.

0:48.0

And so you don't have to admit it.

0:50.8

It's not something that you're ashamed of.

0:52.8

I know.

0:53.8

Nicole is a pediatrician near Cincinnati.

0:56.6

She has a parenting blog.

0:58.2

She's super active on social media.

1:00.6

A lot of the stuff she posts online is about kids and family health.

1:04.9

So she decided to do a post using The Cupid Shuffle about vaccines.

1:09.6

So you know, listening to that song and thinking, okay, how do I do this?

1:13.8

Nicole filmed herself doing a little dance and posted a text box in the video that says

1:18.9

vaccines prevent and then on each beat, measles, moms,

1:23.5

frubella, polio, pertussis, hepatitis, influenza.

1:27.8

New Macau, Gazemovles, all of those different diseases that vaccines prevent

1:31.8

and at the end of the video, it just says vaccines don't cause autism.

...

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