Disinformation research is increasingly concerned with the hierarchies and conditions that enable the strategic production of false and misleading content online. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was revealed that 12 influencers were responsible for a significant volume of antivaccine disinformation. This article examines how influencers use antivaccination memes for commercial and political gain. Drawing on a 12-month digital ethnography of three disinformation producers on Instagram and Telegram, we conceptualize their strategy of meme warfare in terms of the logics of spoiled identity, demonstrating how stigma is used to galvanize and recast the antivaccination movement around themes of persecution and moral superiority. Dispensing with the idea that content moderation has forced disinformation “underground,” we find that disinformation producers configure memes to adapt to specific platforms by directing mainstream audiences to less regulated platforms, personal newsletters, and sites. By examining the tactics and techniques disinformation producers use to spread antivaccination messaging online, we question the effectiveness of content moderation policies as a solution to regulate influencers whose visibility and status strategically straddle multiple sites in the broader information ecosystem.

中文翻译：

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“模因拯救生命”：COVID-19 大流行期间的耻辱和抗疫苗模因的产生

虚假信息研究越来越关注能够在网上战略性地生产虚假和误导性内容的层次结构和条件。据透露，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，有 12 名影响者制造了大量的反疫苗虚假信息。本文探讨了影响者如何利用反疫苗模因来获取商业和政治利益。根据 Instagram 和 Telegram 上三位虚假信息制作者为期 12 个月的数字民族志，我们根据被破坏的身份逻辑概念化了他们的模因战争策略，展示了如何利用耻辱来激发和重塑围绕迫害和歧视主题的反疫苗运动。道德优越感。抛开内容审核迫使虚假信息“转入地下”的观点，我们发现虚假信息生产者通过将主流受众引导到监管较少的平台、个人新闻通讯和网站来配置模因以适应特定平台。通过研究虚假信息制造者在网上传播反疫苗信息的策略和技术，我们质疑内容审核政策作为监管影响者的解决方案的有效性，这些影响者的可见性和地位战略性地跨越更广泛的信息生态系统中的多个网站。