Twitter Is a Megaphone for ‘Sudden Death’ Vaccine Conspiracies

Wired (January  16, 2023) – WHEN BRITISH RADIO DJ Tim Gough passed away suddenly during a broadcast in October 2022, his friend and colleague James Hazell barely had time to mourn before the trolling began. “They didn’t even give him time to go cold. They were straight on it with some vile messages,” Hazell says.

Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists seized upon Gough’s death, reportedly from a suspected heart attack, and turned his Twitter and Instagram feeds into a storm of disinformation and abuse. “Don’t worry. Safe and very very effective. Perfect for euthanasia also!!!! [sic],” one Twitter user posted. “Death vax,” wrote another. Gough’s accounts, and the Twitter feed of GenX Radio in Suffolk, UK, where he and Hazell worked, were “besieged with abuse,” Hazell says. “They didn’t seem to care about the actual situation of a human dying.”

Wired – Twitter Is a Megaphone for ‘Sudden Death’ Vaccine Conspiracies