Her son died. And then anti-vaxers attacked her
March 19, 2019 12:56 PM Subscribe
Not long ago, a 4-year-old boy died of the flu. His mother, under doctor's orders, watched his two little brothers like a hawk, terrified they might get sick and die, too.
Grieving and frightened, just days after her son's death she checked her Facebook page hoping to read messages of comfort from family and friends.
Instead, she found dozens of hateful comments: You're a terrible mother. You killed your child. You deserved what happened to your son. This is all fake - your child doesn't exist...The attacks were from those who oppose vaccination.
Interviews with mothers who've lost children and with those who spy on anti-vaccination groups, reveal a tactic employed by anti-vaxers: When a child dies, members of the group sometimes encourage each other to go on that parent's Facebook page. The anti-vaxers then post messages telling the parents they're lying and their child never existed, or that the parent murdered them, or that vaccines killed the child, or some combination of all of those.
Nothing is considered too cruel. Just days after their children died, mothers say anti-vaxers on social media called them whores, the c-word and baby killers.
Interviews with mothers who've lost children and with those who spy on anti-vaccination groups, reveal a tactic employed by anti-vaxers: When a child dies, members of the group sometimes encourage each other to go on that parent's Facebook page. The anti-vaxers then post messages telling the parents they're lying and their child never existed, or that the parent murdered them, or that vaccines killed the child, or some combination of all of those.
Nothing is considered too cruel. Just days after their children died, mothers say anti-vaxers on social media called them whores, the c-word and baby killers.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is awful, but we've had a good deal of recent stuff about anti-vaxxers and social media trolls, so I don't know that there's new stuff to say in here beyond that this is awful -- probably better to put this as a link in the ongoing antivax thread instead. -- LobsterMitten
It’s been about 10 years since I ditched Facebook, so I don’t remember, but...how are non-family and non-friends able to see and/or post on her Facebook page anyway?
Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of “friending” someone, if any nutjob rando with a FB account can read your posts, and then dump a load of vitriol and bullshit on your page?
posted by darkstar at 1:05 PM on March 19, 2019
Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of “friending” someone, if any nutjob rando with a FB account can read your posts, and then dump a load of vitriol and bullshit on your page?
posted by darkstar at 1:05 PM on March 19, 2019
threatening people is illegal - people need to serve time for it - also, it would help if facebook instituted a system where a person can choose who is able to post comments and disallow perfect strangers from doing so
posted by pyramid termite at 1:06 PM on March 19, 2019
posted by pyramid termite at 1:06 PM on March 19, 2019
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posted by escape from the potato planet at 1:00 PM on March 19, 2019 [6 favorites]