11 Monkeypox Conspiracy Theories Got 1.4 Million Views on TikTok in One Day, Study Finds
conspiracy theories associated with #monkeypox hashtag on TikTok. The three most popular theories propagated themonkeypox was the next orchestrated pandemic, that monkeypox was introduced to force more people to receive
vaccines, and that Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates was involved in the monkeypox outbreak. None of these conspiracy theories are true.pandemic to the next, that’s all it’s going to be now guys, that way they can keep all the control they want and keep everyone scared….This is a giant plan,” one person said in a TikTok video, according to a transcript in the study.Other conspiracy theories speculated that monkeypox was a ploy to give the WHO power over sovereign countries, that the monkeys thathad monkeypox and were released on purpose, and that monkeypox was created in lab, among others. Again, none of these are true.
The study was not without its limitations. According to the authors, one limitation was that they only analyzed videos on TikTok in English under one hashtag. They acknowledged that there were likely TikTok videos with conspiracy theories in other languages and different hashtags.
Caulfield said the study is a reminder that public health officials need to adopt a range of response to address misinformation on social media, including “rapid debunking and content-informed pre-bunking.”