Monkeypox conspiracies are rife on TikTok

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-10-19 02:00

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Canadian scientists decided to check out misinformation about monkeypox on TikTok, and say of 864 videos they found about the disease, 153 (18%) contained conspiracy theories. Between them, the conspiracy videos had clocked up nearly 1.5m views, 74,328 likes, 7,890 comments, and 13,783 shares. Some of the most popular theories were that monkeypox was deliberately introduced for power, control, money or to instill fear, that monkeypox was a deliberate repeat of COVID-19, or that monkeypox is part of “the great reset” or “one world order”. Fifty-one videos were related to vaccines, suggesting monkeypox is an excuse to force vaccination, or that vaccine manufacturers and governments created the outbreak. In addition, 27 videos claimed the outbreak is a power grab by the World Health Organization, 28 featured Bill Gates as a conspirator, and 22 blamed the Russian government. The findings suggest public health experts should monitor conspiracy theories on social media so that false claims can be debunked quickly, the authors say.