Virus consipracy-theory video shows challenges for big tech

CHICAGO (AP) — One by one, tech companies across Silicon Valley scrambled to take down a slickly produced video of a discredited researcher peddling a variety of conspiracy theories about the coronavirus.

It was all too late.

The 26-minute documentary-style video dubbed “Plandemic,” in which anti-vaccine activist Judy Mikovits promotes a string of questionable, false and potentially dangerous coronavirus theories, had already racked up millions of views over several days and gained a massive audience in Facebook groups that oppose vaccines or are protesting governors’ stay-at-home orders.

Its spread illustrates how easy it is to use social media as a megaphone to swiftly broadcast dubious content to the masses, and how difficult it is for platforms to cut the mic.

Mikovits’ unsupported claims — that the virus was manufactured in a lab, that it's injected into people via flu vaccinations and that wearing a mask could trigger a coronavirus infection — activated a social media army already skeptical of the pandemic’s threat.

Amid uncertainty and unanswered questions about a virus that has upended everyone's lives, and a growing distrust of authoritative sources, people shared the video again and again on the likes of YouTube, Facebook and Instagram until it took on a life of its own even after the original was taken down.

“The other video has already been deleted by YouTube. … Let’s get it to another million! Modern day book burning at its finest,” read one post on a private Facebook group called Reopen California.

“Once it’s available, it has an infinite lifespan,” said Ari Lightman, a professor of digital media at Carnegie Mellon University.

In a matter of days, two of Mikovits’ books became best-sellers on Amazon. Conservative radio...