ABSTRACT
Social media are often used by supporters of unofficial, fraudulent, and potentially harmful medical practices or beliefs to channel messages that assert their validity while undermining the credibility of established and scientific medical approaches. These messages may lead people to distrust the medical establishment or even refuse important medical treatments, including vaccines. This chapter focuses on Twitter activism against childhood vaccines in Italy. Particularly, by drawing on a variety of digital methods including virtual and visual ethnographies of Twitter posts and social network analysis, this chapter explores and criticaly analyses the interactions between ‘no-vaxxers’ and ‘pro-vaxxers’ (people supporting immunisation practices) and the content of their messages.
