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Notable new reporting is out this week on how vaccination-opposed activists and online misinformationists make a comfortable living by casting doubt in others’ minds on the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines—including by targeting school-aged children. In Russia, an underground trade is flourishing in fake vaccine certificates.
There are also developments related to the so-called audits (the one in Arizona and other possible ones like it) as election officials say they and their families are being threatened for *not* finding evidence of widespread fraud and helping undermine trust in election results. A film that retreads by-now familiar election conspiracy theory tropes made it known that the CEO of the company running the Arizona ballot inspection operation on behalf of the State Senate is an adherent of the online QAnon movement. In New York City, the mayor’s race was marred by a mistaken tally, and some misinformationists have tried to argue it is proof that Trump is right about the presidential election being stolen. Michael Flynn has prospered more than most for his work evangelizing the fraudulent election narrative, but others including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell have begun to face consequences for peddling in falsehoods.
Related to Trump’s election lies, government officials have voiced concern about the risk of real world violence related to conspiracy theories that assert that Trump will be “reinstated” as president in August. At least three dozen adherents of the online QAnon movement are running for Congress. A pastor is recorded spinning tales of child-trafficking tunnels under the Capitol and the White House for his large flock. There is nothing to the claims that John McAfee’s death is connected to the Florida condo collapse. QAnon has been spreading in California among the wellness-minded.
That, and more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
— Kevin
VACCINES, ETC.
Report: Pandemic Profiteers: The business of anti-vaxx (Center for Countering Digital Hate)
Inside Future Z, The Anti-Vax Campaign Targeting Schoolkids (USA Today)
Documentary Film: The Anti-Vax Conspiracy (Quicksilver Media)
Now booming on Moscow’s black market: Fake vaccine certificates (Washington Post)
THE 2020 ELECTION
Trump audit excitement meets with fear from election officials (Politico)
Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan Revealed as 'Anon' in 'Deep Rig' Election Conspiracy Film (Newsweek)
NYC mayoral primary blunder fuels Trump's 'conspiracy theories' (Fox5 New York)
The Digital General: How Trump Ally Michael Flynn Nurtured — and Profited From — the QAnon Conspiracy Theory (The Intercept)
Rudy Giuliani suspended from practice of law in New York (ABC News)
Sidney Powell says the Governor, the AG, and the SoS of Detroit and Michigan have sought sanctions against her (@patriottakes via Twitter)
QANON & COMPANY
Conspiracy theory that Trump will be reinstated in August has officials worried, report claims (Independent)
A Trump-loving insurrectionist and a convicted stalker are among 36 QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2022 (Business Insider)
Pastor uses sermon to allege child-trafficking "tunnels" under the Capitol and White House and to accuse Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, and Tom Hanks of pedophilia (@RightWingWatch via Twitter)
Fact check: No evidence John McAfee owned unit in partially collapsed Florida condo (USA Today)
California’s yoga, wellness and spirituality community has a QAnon problem (LA Times)
GENERAL/OTHER
US ranks last among 46 countries in trust in media, Reuters Institute report finds (Poynter)
$1 million in new funding from Craig Newmark Philanthropies to support CIP’s rapid-response mis- and disinformation research (University of Washington Center for an Informed Public)
How China Spreads Its Propaganda Version of Life for Uyghurs (ProPublica)
Tucker Carlson Says The NSA Wants Him Off The Air. Fox News Isn't Following His Lead (NPR)
Tucker Carlson’s NSA spying claims are evidence-free. Republicans are running with them anyway. (Vox)