Britain's sticky issue: The vaccine disinformation war
In January a Covid conspiracy group started a sticker bombing campaign, bringing fringe beliefs into full view.
Before the virus
Baby on board. Wash your hands. Danger 400 volts.
Stickers are meant to keep us safe, or add some colour to a greying city.
Inert warnings, bright logos, and those glaring health reminders on the edge of a dirty pub mirror.
Then 2020 brought new stickers, telling us to sing happy birthday while we wash our hands, wear a mask on the bus, or download an app to buy a pint.
You even get a sticker when you are jabbed.
One man did not like the new stickers though.
Mayoral candidate Piers Corbyn ripped off public health stickers on the tube in a video dated to July, marking a new battleground for the disinformation war.
Dissent in action, no longer just on the internet.
Britain's sticky issue.
Sticking around
The white labels were first reported this January in Manchester.
Middleton Councillor Sarah Rowbotham told the Manchester Evening News at the time “I don’t think that is an isolated incident. I think there’s potential for that to be spread around the borough.”
In the months since the reports have increased, not just in London, but Bedford, Lincoln, and Suffolk.
Kent Online even ran the headline “Town Blitzed by anti-Covid stickers”, which seemed like an odd conclusion.
If there is anything anti-vaxxers have got right it is their dislike of Covid.
It appears with over 75% double jabbed a disinformation war now rages on the lampposts and telephone boxes of Britain.
Nestled between the sex-worker calling cards, parking notices, and public health messaging, are stickers from a group called The White Rose.
They take their name from a resistance group started by Munich students under Nazi rule in 1942.
Hans and Sophie Scholl leafleted anti-Nazi propaganda after witnessing mass murder on the Eastern Front.
Their message of freedom and opposition to Hitler spread around other German cities owing to a handheld duplication machine which allowed them to print thousands of flyers.
The Gestapo beheaded them in 1943.
Back in December 2020, a German anti-lockdown protester, Jana from Kassel, featured in a viral video comparing herself to Sophie Scholl, it was widely condemned.
The German Foreign Minister called it “unacceptable historical amnesia”.
Today The White Rose group says “We bring censored information to the masses through the medium of stickers! You won't find fearmongering, lies, or hyperbole here - just facts.”
Closer analysis of these facts suggests losing their heads is where the similarities end.
The “facts” include reference to microchips and a plandemic.
Vaccine conspiracies have been debunked multiple times and most people can do the maths on a rare blood clot.
Yet people are reeled in by this nub of truth.
For example, the terrible impacts of lockdowns, a potential Wuhan lab leak, and the election of Boris Johnson.
Only the last one is certainly true, and some might say by far the most bonkers.
Sticker bombers
The White Rose has shown global ambition by printing stickers in fourteen languages.
They also update their Telegram channel daily to show sightings of the stickers around the world.
In truth it only takes one person to go on a sticker rampage for the problem to seem worse than it is.
Then just a few people take pictures and post them on social media.
Suddenly what was taken offline, is back online, and the network expands again.
The WHO and the UN released a statement in September. “Misinformation costs lives,” it said.
So why does the government let the stickers go unchallenged? The answer allows this article to be published.
Freedom of expression means we can just about say what we want.
I can say the UK’s vaccination programme has weakened the link between cases and hospitalisation, so the more who refuse the vaccine, the more who die.
Anti-vaxxers can say the opposite.
But, all our rights are limited by the rights of others. I cannot preach violence and incite acts of terrorism.
It’s a grey area though, because the Human Rights Act says expression must be balanced with other people’s health.
You could make a strong argument that anti-vaccine propaganda infringes on someone else’s right to life, but so far no one has taken this to the courts.
Public Health England did not respond to a request for comment.
Sticking point
Professor Karen Douglas has studied the psychology of conspiracy theories for over ten years.
She doubts how much influence they have if they are removed quickly, as most are.
But there is still cause for concern.
She added: “When people are prepared to act on their belief in conspiracy theories, there are likely to be consequences and even if this means just persuading a few people this could have negative effects on the vaccine programme.”
"When people are prepared to act on their belief in conspiracy theories, there are likely to be consequences,"
Since beginning the research for this article, none of the stickers in the video have been removed.
The White Rose Telegram channel has nearly 40,000 subscribers.
Stuck in the blood
There is also a nefarious side to the sticker bombing.
Last week British protesters shouted outside the old BBC headquarters in West London, two months after they had to tighten security due to death threats.
In January QAnon supporters stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC, resulting in the deaths of five people.
This month a woman cut her hand removing a sticker posted by another organisation Want_V_Need. Someone had hidden a razor blade behind it.
CW:// blood
— N3KOcardiff! - making the world nicer! (@N3KOcardiff) July 27, 2021
I'd love to know, which fuckwit decides to put razor blades behind stickers?
Pulled this anti mask bullshit down on Canton high street, and absolutely mulched my hand.
Thankfully, it's fixed now, but ouch! pic.twitter.com/K7uymohHhq
What might appear confined to the digital landscape has real world consequences, including the avoidable deaths of people who refuse the vaccine.
Aside from the obvious concerns about lies and quackery, Hope Not Hate has identified conspiracies theories as a gateway into right-wing extremist groups.
This theory is evident in the Telegram group of The White Rose, where anti-Jewish hate is frequent and links to more extreme chats are posted.
In their State of Hate report, HNH identified the dwindling influence of far-right sticker plastering group The Hundred Handers.
Established in 2018, and led by Nazi Sam Melia, their racist stickers have also used razor blade traps and imitated Extinction Rebellion in a smear campaign.
Two men were arrested in Sheffield in April 2020 for racially aggravated public order offences after taking part in a sticker campaign.
The group currently has over 4,000 followers on Telegram, but they have not updated their sticker archive since November.
The Hundred Handers popularised the decentralised sticker reproduction tactic by encouraging followers to buy a cheap sticker printer, download designs from encrypted chats, and print the stickers themselves.
It allows the network to propagate hate cheaply without fear of prosecution for selling racist content online.
This is exactly the same process as The White Rose.
Both encourage users to by a Brother QL800 printer and then spread messages across the streets.
One member of The White Rose Telegram chat even remarked “this seems a kosher version of the Hundred Handers”.
The cellular approach has also given rise to opportunists selling anti-vaccine stickers on eBay and Facebook.
One man denied ownership of the eBay account when they were approached for comment.
Another account continues to sell the stickers along with hooligan merch including t-shirts saying “We kneel for no-one”, and a book advertised with #edl #farright.
eBay did not reply to a request for comment.
It is impossible to know if people are really moved by seeing stickers, but the increasing popularity of protests and marches show the consequences playing out in real life.
Yes, there are the usual suspects frothing at the mouth for a punch-up.
But bubbling under the spit of shirtless men screaming at the police is a more worrying resentment to experts, complete distrust, and a lack of critical thinking.
Protest is crucial to democracy, it’s just a shame all this energy is wasted on Bill Gates and face masks.
The shell of Grenfell tower shows the real tragedies are all too present.
Sticking with it
The White Rose updated their website this week to start crowdfunding for billboards.
They plan for at least four-week campaigns in London, Manchester, Bristol, and Brighton.
If successful, they promise to roll them out globally.
“We want to take immediate action to alert the masses to the dangers of the experimental vaccine! We also want to alert them to the medical tyranny of so-called vaccine passports, and the push to bring about the brainchild of the NWO - the 'great reset'.”
Not only is there a casual reference to the stock anti-Semitic trope, the “New World Order”, but some people are donating £100 at a time.
At the time of publishing they had exceeded the £5,400 target after one user made a £4,000 donation.
As Professor Douglas said, we should be worried when people are prepared to act on their beliefs.
Photos
“Stickers, Brick Lane, London's eastend” by Gary Boyne, licensed under Creative Commons
“Piers Corbyn London Mayor Announcement” by Piers Corbyn, licensed under Creative Commons
"White Rose stamp - Hans & Sophie Scholl" by Jim Forest, licensed under Creative Commons
"Stop The Steal" by Chad Davis, licensed under Creative Commons
Screenshot "Anti-vaccine protesters clash with police outside former BBC HQ, years after it moved out" by The Guardian
Music
"Intimidation" by https://www.purple-planet.com
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