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Trending: The Anti-Vax Files: Targeting Germany’s youth

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The Anti-Vax Files

10/04/2021 GMT

Targeting Germany’s youth

BBC World Service - Trending, The Anti-Vax Files, Targeting Germany’s youth

Germany’s Querdenken movement opposes vaccines. Now it’s recruiting children.

Germany’s Querdenken movement opposes lockdowns, vaccines and Covid science. Now it’s recruiting children – so who's behind a private Telegram group containing extreme content?

The Querdenken (in English, “lateral thinking”) sprung up last summer – it’s Germany’s anti-vaccine, Covid-denying, anti-lockdown movement, and it’s created a new crop of social media figures. 
The baseless conspiracy theories they spread have got more extreme over time – and one man in particular has used parents’ worries about the impact of lockdown on their children as a vehicle for false narratives. 
Samuel Eckert, a former evangelical preacher, runs a private Telegram group for under-18s called Samuel Eckert Youngsters. There are more than 300 children involved, all aged between 10-17, despite Telegram only being open to those aged 16 and above.
Eckert says the group is for Covid-sceptic children to meet and support each other. An inside source tells us that the children adore Eckert, post selfies with him - and some even refer to him as “father”.
But the children involved have also been exposed to far-right content, and some have been bullied for their views. What really goes on inside Germany’s secret Telegram group for Covid-sceptic teens?

Presenter: Mike Wendling 
Reporter: Jessica Bateman
Producer: Reha Kansara

Trending: The Anti-Vax Files

We investigate how anti-vaccine activists have used social media to spread their message.

Scientists say only a vaccine will get us out of the pandemic. So why do some feel the anti-vax movement has grown stronger than ever over the last year?

In a new series from BBC Trending a team of disinformation reporters investigate how hard-core anti-vaccine activists have used social media to spread their message far and wide, capitalising on fear and mistrust to advance their own agendas during the pandemic.

BBC Trending: The Anti-Vax Files explores how the movement has manifested across the world, from France – portrayed as one of the most vaccine-sceptic countries in the world – to India, South Africa, and Germany. The team also uncovers the extraordinary stories of people fighting online against this misinformation and those who are actively promoting the facts and the science behind vaccination - often working without pay or institutional support.

The series will turn the spotlight on the world’s social media giants asking whether they turned a blind eye, or just acted too late in countering misinformation about vaccines. It will also look at more traditional sources of information – journalists, governments, and health officials – and ask whether they simply weren’t ready for the “infodemic” that was to come with the virus.

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