Russian trolls accused of spreading anti-vaccine propaganda online

Well this is disturbing. 

Apparently not content to merely meddle in the 2016 U.S. election, Russian trolls now stand accused of spreading a type of misinformation that could have literal deadly effects: anti-vaccine propaganda.  

So finds a new study published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, which found that Russian trolls pushed vaccine-related misinformation on Twitter in the run up to the 2016 election. 

"Content polluters seem to use anti-vaccine messages as bait to entice their followers to click on advertisements and links to malicious websites," explained Sandra Crouse Quinn, study co-author and University of Maryland professor, in a press release. "Ironically, content that promotes exposure to biological viruses may also promote exposure to computer viruses." Read more...