An anti-vaxx, conspiracy theory ecosystem
At The Adelphi
3-5 Hunslet Road, Leeds, LS10 1JQ
When 2020 brought with it a new strain of coronavirus, the world was plunged into confusion and uncertainty. While most people accepted the realities of the virus, little white stickers began to appear in public around the world claiming COVID-19 was a hoax concocted by the governments of the world to instil fear into their people, as a pretext for introducing new, permanent totalitarian laws. The graffiti was part of a co-ordinated grassroots campaign by a group calling itself The White Rose, urging members of the public to join their encrypted messaging channels to learn more about what was really going on.
So that’s what Michael Marshall, full-time skeptical investigator, did. After spending months undercover in the messaging app Telegram, he reported on the various conspiracy theories spread by the White Rose, and how groups used the Covid crisis to radicalise vaccine hesitant members of the public into a dangerous ecosystem of misinformation and extremism.
Michael is the Project Director of the Good Thinking Society, Editor of The Skeptic, and President of the Merseyside Skeptics Society. For further detail visit: https://goodthinkingsociety.org/about/
(Thanks to the Sheffield Skeptics who allowed me to use this bio. Image credit NIAID)