Question: Scrolling through Twitter, I keep seeing the statistic that 12 people on Facebook are responsible for 65% of lies about vaccines.  Is that correct?

Answer: I read that too! The statistic is from a report that the Center for Countering Digital Hate released on March 24th 2021, The Disinformation Dozen: Why Platforms Must Act on Twelve Leading Online Anti-Vaxxers. The non-profit organization analyzed more than 800,000 posts with anti-vaccine content, which they extracted from Facebook and Twitter between February 1st through March 16th, 2021.  One of their key findings is “Analysis of anti-vaccine content posted to Facebook over 689,000 times in the last two months shows that up to 73 percent of that content originates with members of the Disinformation Dozen of leading online anti-vaxxers.”  The 65% statistic is for both Facebook and Twitter (e.g. “65 percent of anti-vaccine content is attributable to the Disinformation Dozen”).  The report itself is lacking in an in-depth description of their methodology, so I’m not sure whether findings could be replicable by another group.  That said, there’s no doubt that these 12 individuals are responsible for an onslaught of anti-vaccination disinformation.  If you’d like to read more, check out this report from NPR.  And if you’re curious about who the “Disinformation Dozen” are, I’ve included the list herein (Table).

Table. Disinformation Dozen (from Center for Countering Digital Hate)