Alex Kaplan at MMFA:
Multiple alternative streaming platforms have been hosting videos promoting misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. These videos have often received significant numbers of views and have in turn been spread onto mainstream platforms like Facebook.
In recent months, as the vaccine rollout has ramped up in the United States and worldwide, mainstream social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, have struggled to combat content that is casting doubt or trying to create fear about coronavirus vaccines -- which are safe and effective -- despite their claims to ban vaccine misinformation on the platforms. In particular, videos targeting the vaccines have been spreading significantly.
But anti-vaccine videos are not spreading on just mainstream platforms: Alternative streaming platforms known for lax moderation rules -- BitChute, Rumble, lbry.tv, Brand New Tube, Infowars’ streaming platform banned.video, and Brighteon -- have hosted anti-vaccine videos in recent months that have earned millions of views combined. During that time, Media Matters has tracked multiple instances of this harmful content spreading to Facebook, in violation of that platform’s coronavirus misinformation ban.
Alternative streaming platforms that are frequented by the far-right, such as BitChute and Rumble, are helping to spread coronavirus vaccine misinformation