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- In January, Billy Ball lost his 6-year old son to a rare condition.
- Anti-vaxxers started to claim online, inexplicably that the death was caused by the COVID vaccine.
- Ball stated that Twitter and Facebook often did not take any action after comments were reported.
After his 6-year-old son died in January from a rare medical condition that left him with a brain injury, Billy Ball started a fundraising campaign in his name to raise funds for an art program at his neighborhood school.
Initial responses were mostly positive. Ball wrote in The Atlantic that many people had donated. However, the father's social media accounts quickly became a swarm of conspiracy theorists claiming that Ball murdered his son by getting him COVID-19 vaccinated. He claimed that Facebook and Twitter often offered no recourse.
Facebook decided that a comment made by a user mocking and accusing Ball of murdering his son was not in violation of community guidelines, and it declined to remove the comment.
Facebook support sent a message saying that "While we have decided not to take down this comment, we understand that it isn't your favorite." We recommend you hide the comment, unfollow, unfriend, or block the person who made it.
Ball said that it felt like he was talking to a wall about his experience reporting on comments flooding his social media accounts.
Unexpected deaths and health complications have been a hot topic for anti-vaxxers, who believe that the COVID-19 vaccination is responsible. These claims even led to a fake documentary.
Meta and Twitter CEO Elon Musk didn't respond to our request for comment. Twitter provided an automated response to Insider.
Ball, who is a managing editors at Cardinal & Pine newspaper, Raleigh, North Carolina, claimed that he received thousands of Twitter comments accusing him of causing his son's death. Ball estimates that Facebook had seven to eight posts per day. The grieving father couldn't keep up with all of the comments, however.
Ball wrote in The Atlantic that "Losing your child is a harsh reminder that there is no fairness in this world." "The harassment made it feel like there wasn't anything good about it."
Ball asked his closest friends to manage his social media accounts and report on comments, while he was focusing on the funeral of his son.
Most posts shared the same message: Ball somehow killed his son, by getting him vaccined. However, the tone was different.
Ball explained to Insider that some people might say, "I'm so sorry you lost your son. You must feel tremendous guilt for having him killed with COVID vaccine." There were also some people who mocked. They said, "Laugh out loud!" That one will stay with me forever. "Laugh loud. Your boy was killed. "How do you feel?"
Most of the time, the platforms didn’t respond to the complaints. Twitter accounts were sometimes banned in some cases. Ball stated that he does not know what comments might have led to users being banned from Twitter because his friends reported those posts.
Ball was confused by Facebook's response. One user on Facebook managed to locate his private account and comment on a random post from a few years ago.
He said that the post was not about his son, COVID, or anything. "They found one article they could get on… and started mocking me, saying that I had killed my son."
Ball reported the comment, and on March 2, he received a Facebook support message confirming that the comment was not in violation of "Community Standards."
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Ball was shocked that Facebook seemed to allow harassment on its platform. Ball didn't expect to be banned, but he hoped there would be some form of punishment for the user. This could include temporarily locking their account, or at least notifying them that they are being punished.
Facebook chose to keep the comment open, so it is unclear if the user would've received any warnings or messages that the comment had been reported.
After learning that he was not the only parent to have lost their child, Ball decided to share his story with The Atlantic. He was also harassed online.
ABC News reported that conspiracy theorists online have used "Died suddenly," posts to claim that an athlete, child, or celebrity died unexpectedly due to the COVID-19 shot.
After Anastasia, her six-year old daughter, died earlier this year, a mother in Ohio was suddenly bombarded with messages calling her a murderer. The child died suddenly, but she had previous health problems.
Anti-vaxxers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene immediately suggested that Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills' safety, had suddenly fallen during the game.
Ball didn't initially think of sharing his online experience. After learning of other parents who had lost their children online, Ball decided to share his experience.
Ball stated, "I would be reluctant to say anything at any time if this was my outlier case." "But realizing that I wasn't, I was like, "We need to tell this is happening, loudly," Ball said.
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By: lloydlee@insider.com (Lloyd Lee)
Title: A father whose 6-year-old son died was flooded with anti-vaxxer harassment. When a commenter baselessly claimed he killed his son, Facebook said he could ‘hide’ the comment ‘if he didn’t like it.’
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/father-lost-his-son-harassed-online-by-anti-vaxxers-atlantic-2023-3
Published Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2023 01:33:18 +0000
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