Russian trolls blamed for West's measles epidemic that’s killed 72 people by pumping out anti-vax propaganda on social media

Cases of measles in in Europe have hit a record high, figures from the World Health Organisation show, and are also on the increase in the United States.

Trolls and bots manged by the Internet Research Agency have been accused of interfering with the 2016 US presidential election.

They have now been accused of spreading misinformation about vaccines that may have contributed to an outbreak of measles in Europe that killed 72 people and infected more than 82,000 last year.

Duke University’s Professor Robert Califf, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has called for action to tackle the problem, Vox reports.

“Taking on the misinformation campaign about vaccines has become more complex now that research is demonstrating that a large amount of the social media posts represent state-sponsored cyberwarfare, particularly from Russia,” he said.

“We must join together to come up with effective methods to provide people with truthful, reliable, and actionable information about their health.”

Research from the American Journal of Public health found that Russian trolls “masquerading as legitimate users” are trying to erode public consensus on vaccination.

RECORD HIGH LEVELS

In 2000, measles was declared eliminated from the United States, thanks to widespread vaccination campaigns.

But the end of last year official figures from the Centers for Disease Prevention show measles cases had reached 220, up from 120 from all of 2017 and the 86 from 2016.

David Broniatowski, a professor at George Washington University, says Internet Research Agency trolls have been spreading anti-vaccination propaganda since 2014.

"It's a known strategy to infiltrate an interest group around a particular issue or topic and then slowly try to introduce new things into that discourse," he told RFE/RL.

According to World Health Organisation vaccine specialist Katrine Habersaat misinformation is just one factor behind recent drop in vaccination in parts of Europe.

"What we do know is that there is an element of echo chambers in this,” she said.

"We may never know for sure, but I hope there will be more studies exploring this so we know how much we should fear or work against negative misinformation online," she says.

Facebook recently said it is looking into blocking certain anti-vaccine messages.

"We've taken steps to reduce the distribution of health-related misinformation on Facebook, but we know we have more to do,” CNN reported.

“We're currently working with outside experts on additional changes that we'll be announcing soon.”

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