Anti-vaccination groups have invented a Facebook communication code of emojis to avoid bans.
A strange news Bloomberg published yesterday, where their reporter claims that anti-vaccinationists on Facebook are using emojis to speak in code and continue to spread their ideas to social media regarding COVID-19.
Bloomberg reported that Facebook moderators failed to remove posts shared with anti-vaccine groups and pages that would normally be considered in violation of the company's terms because their chat was in code.
Μια τέτοια ομάδα που εξέτασε το Bloomberg, και που ονομάζεται “Died Suddenly” (πέθανε ξαφνικά), είναι ένας χώρος συνάντησης αντιεμβολιαστών που υποτίθεται ότι θρηνούν ένα αγαπημένο τους πρόσωπο που πέθανε αφού έκανε vaccine and they report that he "ate the cake"!.
Although the owner of Facebook claims that “more than 27 million messages have been removed due to infringementof the policy of disinformation on COVID-19”, appear to be unable to understand coded conversations based on emojis.
According to Facebook's terms of use, "the company will remove misinformation during a public health emergency (such as a pandemic) when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm." damage".
So pages or groups risk removal if they violate Facebook's rules even if they "guide or encourage users to use code words to discuss vaccines or COVID-19 and try to avoid detection."
But since these groups exist and use emojis as a code, it shows that Facebook either can't tell them apart or the exclusion of coded speech is not currently his priority.
Last year, when the BBC discovered that anti-vaccine groups were using carrots to hide misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine, Meta immediately deleted any groups identified. However, the BBC reported that shortly afterwards, the same groups reappeared under different names, apparently to avoid detection.
Anti-vaccine activists aside, many other internet users have relied on emojis to create code speech and avoid detection, not only by moderators but also by law enforcement. After all, speaking in codes has always been one tool of those who wanted others not to understand them.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) published a guide on its website with emojis used to buy drugs, including a chocolate bar for Xanax, a crown to denote a dealer or a rocket to denote a high.
This summer, the The Atlantic reported that internet users increasingly relied on emojis to obscure abortion discussions as access to abortion in the US became more restricted.
