Graham led research in November and early December that showed disinformation about Covid surged on Twitter after the platform lifted its ban on misleading health information. Since Jan. 1, a new analysis from Graham shows there have been more than 326,000 tweets and retweets that read “died suddenly” or “#DiedSuddenly,” peaking at 5,000 in an hour on Jan. 3.
By restoring suspended accounts, Graham says, Musk has sent a message that Twitter is a safe place for harmful covid conspiracy theories.
Those previously banned after sharing disputed Covid claims include prominent vaccine critic and cardiologist Peter McCullough, who has since promoted the sudden death story on Twitter.
Twitter’s new approach to verifying accounts has also helped make the platform a “breeding ground for disinformation,” according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which monitors disinformation. Before Musk took over, users were given “verified” blue ticks if the company rated them as significant votes. In November, Twitter began to allow qualifying users to purchase verification for $8 per month, they give additional functions and prioritization in calls.
For the acquisition, Twitter entered into a partnership with news organizations to identify misleading conversations and the platform highlighted remarkable information from reliable sources. It has since launched its Community Notes feature, which allows users to add context to tweets.
A CCDH analysis of nearly 60,000 tweets posted between Nov. 9, when the new verification scheme launched, and Dec. 12, found that 30 percent of messages from Twitter Blue users containing the word “vaccine” contained misinformation.
Paid blue checks may have helped lend credibility to accounts that boosted the viral movie Suddenly died. The film was produced by Stew Peters, a right-wing radio host known for spreading conspiracy theories, and premiered on November 21. collapse to claim Covid vaccines are killing people en masse. Some of the reported deaths, including Gough’s, were demonstrably unrelated to vaccination. The film was viewed more than 2 million times on Twitter and many more posts were linked to it on the fringe video platform Rumble.
While users can see how Twitter accounts got the tick from their profile, it’s not immediately obvious when scrolling through content. “If a piece of propaganda has a blue check next to it, people assume it is at least something that has gained notoriety based on merit,” CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed tells WIRED. “Suddenly died has not gained notoriety based on merit.”
Peters did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
The #DiedSuddenly hashtag was trending on Twitter after the film’s release and now appears alongside tens of thousands of tweets about people’s deaths.
QUT’s analysis showed that Suddenly died had a significant impact on the spread of Covid disinformation by creating a focal point for other conspiracy theories and their promoters. By allowing the film to circulate unchecked on Twitter, Graham creates a “snowball effect where networks of interconnected communities and false narratives become visible, and begin to mobilize and grow exponentially.”
