Made to Stick: Origins and Spread of the Magnetic Vaccine Narrative
Authors: Chase Small, Carly Miller (Stanford Internet Observatory); Osiris Cruz-Antonio (University of Washington Center for an Informed Public); Diego Groisman (NYU)
On May 9, a TikTok video went viral that purported to show a refrigerator magnet sticking to the arm of someone who had recently received a COVID-19 vaccine. Between the time when the video was posted and when TikTok removed it on May 13, the video was viewed over 9.6 million times. While a number of the top comments remarked on the outlandishness of the claim that vaccines make people magnetic, in the past month, the effects of this online narrative have had a real world impact. On June 8, just a month after the TikTok video went viral, a prominent anti-vaccine activist attempted to demonstrate this “magnetism” in the Ohio state legislature as evidence that the vaccines are unsafe.
The May 9 TikTok video became part of a proliferation of videos in the so-called “Magnet Challenge.” These videos vary from satirical takes on the conspiracy theory to steadfast beliefs that the vaccines make people magnetic. While some of the content for the Magnet Challenge may have appeared to poke fun at the ridiculousness of anti-vaccine claims, the conspiracy ultimately has had harmful negative effects online, such as encouraging others to not get the vaccine. Looking at the origin and spread of the magnet videos, we discuss how the range of responses to the challenge, including videos that debunk the challenge, raise difficult moderation questions on how to handle health misinformation that may be considered satirical.
Background on the Magnet Challenge and Analysis of the Narrative’s Spread
Videos allegedly showing magnets adhering to people’s arms emerged on a number of different platforms and in different languages around the end of April. The first videos our analysts were able to find appeared in a Tweet from a now-suspended anti-vaccine account on April 28 and a Facebook post on April 30 from a profile which posts world news in English and Arabic. These original posts received very little engagement with only 2 and 105 likes respectively.
After the May 9 TikTok video, the Magnet Challenge gained prominence across the major platforms where users created their own videos or shared videos posted to smaller, fringe outlets such as Odysee.com and Bitchute. Some content we initially tracked has been removed making it difficult to assess the total spread. Our searches on these platforms for content that remains up indicate that there was a spike in content creation for this trend beginning a few days after the May 9 TikTok video (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. A distribution of Tweets and Retweets of “magnetchallenge” as of June 21, shows the persistence of the hashtag over May and June. (Data does not show Tweets that were actioned on.)
While some viral content may have come down across the platforms, such as the May 9 TikTok video, there is a sustained presence of the hashtag on platforms such as TikTok and Twitter; as of June 21, there were about 129 TikTok videos and 6,897 Tweets. Most of this content however has received little engagement: the top 5 Tweets account for 20% of the spread of the hashtag on Twitter with the most engaged post receiving about 700 likes and 430 retweets and the most engaged video on TikTok received about 22K likes and 4K shares.
We also saw these videos taken seriously in Spanish and Mandarin language content, demonstrating the cross language pervasiveness. In Spanish, this content spread on Instagram, Telegram, TikTok, and Twitter, as well as on news sites. These videos and articles had more than 100K engagements including for TikTok videos with the hashtags #imanvacuna, #vacunaiman, and #imancovid. Similar claims about metals in vaccines turning humans magnetic have also spread in Chinese via a subtitled video of known anti-vaccine physician Christiane Northrup and other content on Telegram which received over 6K views in one channel.
Similar to how we have seen other narratives develop, pseudo-scientific backing for the “Magnet Challenge” has since emerged retrospectively to legitimize and preserve the narrative. Notably, while the trend originated around the false idea that a microchip in the vaccine was magnetic, later justifications shifted to claim that vaccines made people magnetic generally. For example, one headline from June 7, a month after the “Magnet Challenge” caught on, claims that “magnetism” is used to “force mRNA throughout the body.” Videos about this particular explanation have spread around alt platforms such as Rumble and BitChute where they have amassed over 200K views. There is also pseudo scientific justification happening on mainstream platforms, though these get less attention. An Instagram post from May 20 with 2.5K likes suggested that vaccines contain “superparamagnetic iron oxide” and used scientific jargon to falsely claim vaccines are magnetic. Thus, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccine activists continue to work to legitimize the Magnet Challenge.
Challenges for Content Moderation
This case study presents a confluence of challenges for platforms on the best way to approach vaccine misinformation. Any content moderation policy requires balancing users’ freedom of speech with the negative impacts of health misinformation, the worst of which we have seen take place offline.
For starters, this narrative is framed as part of an online “challenge,” which by definition encourages others to participate. The “Magnet Challenge” offers an opportunity to test the narrative for yourself, which provides a sense of autonomy in truth making. The challenge therefore creates a moderation dilemma — do you just moderate on the videos of users who come to the wrong conclusion and leave up the ones that debunk the narrative?
This question feeds into the second dilemma, whether platforms should let the community debunk the claims on their own. On TikTok there are a number of videos that clearly debunk the “Magnet Challenge.” These videos contain pro-vaccine messaging and highlight ways magnets can appear to stick to individuals for reasons other than people being magnetic. There are definite benefits to having the debunking come from within the community of users and the debunking provides greater explanation to things people may be curious or want to know more about rather than just removing the videos entirely. But one cost to this approach is that even engaging in the magnet challenge and sticking magnets to our body, even through humor, gives oxygen to the narrative that can discourage people from receiving the vaccine.
Finally, the satirical nature of some of the content makes determining each video’s intention difficult. Some videos show people laughing while sticking objects to their arm or even using outlandishly large metal objects, such as frying pans. However, comments on these videos express concern about the magnets indicating that users are taking them seriously. For example, one user commented “I don’t get why they are laughing, I would be screaming.”
Figure 2. A screenshot of a tweet from The High Wire, run by anti-vaccine activist, Del Bigtree, that promotes the conspiracy about the #magnetchallenge.
Takeaways and Recommendations
Content about vaccine safety concerns on the border of satire and harm is not a new phenomenon. Virality Project analysts have monitored narratives that draw on the recurring trope of “harmful vaccine components”, such as claims that the vaccines contain microchips or aborted fetal tissue. Sometimes, content intended to mock these narratives and their believers unintentionally fuels serious spread. For example, a TikTok video from May claimed that the AstraZeneca vaccine makes you Bluetooth compatible. The video appeared to be made as a joke and received roughly 2.5M engagements. Other posts across various platforms repeated the claim but took it seriously. These types of videos fall into a difficult gray area in the balance between free speech and removing harmful content given its potentially satirical nature. Given that content claiming dangerous ingredients in vaccines is an ongoing anti-vaccine trope, platforms need clear policies on satirical content when it comes to vaccine misinformation.