Folk Theories of Avoiding Content Moderation: How Vaccine-Opposed Influencers Amplify Vaccine Opposition on Instagram
This study analyzes how vaccine-opposed users on Instagram share anti-vaccine content despite facing growing moderation attempts by the platform. Through a thematic analysis of Instagram content (in-feed and ephemeral “stories”) of a sample of vaccine-opposed Instagram users, we explore the observab...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Social Media + Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221144252 |
| Summary: | This study analyzes how vaccine-opposed users on Instagram share anti-vaccine content despite facing growing moderation attempts by the platform. Through a thematic analysis of Instagram content (in-feed and ephemeral “stories”) of a sample of vaccine-opposed Instagram users, we explore the observable tactics deployed by vaccine-opposed users in their attempts to avoid content moderation and amplify anti-vaccination content. Tactics range from lexical variations to encode vaccine-related keywords, to the creative use of Instagram features and affordances. The emergence of such tactics exists as a type of “folk theorization”—the cultivation of non-professional knowledge of how visibility on the platform works. Findings highlight the complications of content moderation as a route to minimizing misinformation, the consequences of algorithmic opacity and knowledge-building within problematic online communities. |
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| ISSN: | 2056-3051 |