The discovery of the new COVID-19 variant, dubbed omicron, gave a new boost to online conspiracy theories and disinformation. False claims that “omicron is a hoax” quickly spread across social media.
Omicron is a new mutation of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and was first identified in November by scientists in South Africa. It has infected people in more than 20 countries, according to the World Health Organization.
Omicron is not a hoax: The Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa made the variant’s genetic data public, and it has been downloaded, examined and authenticated by reliable scientific laboratories and institutions worldwide.
Still, the gusher of falsehoods persists from the vaccine hesitant, skeptics and outright deniers.
The Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tool onemilliontweetmap.com registered up to 1,300 posts per second on Twitter with the words “omicron hoax.” The United States, Britain, South Africa, Canada and Brazil were the top countries for these posts.
Here are some of the typical Twitter, Facebook and TikTok posts: “It’s a hoax mutation caused by the booster vaccine”; “It’s a hoax to scare people into giving away their freedoms”; “It’s a U.S. Democratic Party/the U.K. Conservative Party/the Global Elite [the purported source varies] hoax to manipulate the elections/increase restrictions/impoverish the poor”, etc.
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