Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media

by P.W. Singer

online echo chambers; its effects can sow deadly consequences for society. A prime example is the anti-vaccine movement, which claims that one of the most important discoveries in human history is actually a vast conspiracy. The movement got its start in the 1960s but exploded in popularity along with social media. People with radical but seemingly disparate views—those on the far left suspicious of pharmaceutical companies, the far right suspicious of the government, and religious fundamentalists suspicious of relying on anything but prayer—found common cause online. Across Facebook groups and alternative-health websites, these “anti-vaxxers” shared made-up stories about the links between childhood vaccination and autism, reveling in conspiracy theories and claims they were the ones who faced a second “Holocaust.”