Adults on Tiktok rally around pandemic’s unvaccinated ‘survivors’
Using gestures and sounds from movies such as The Hunger Games and Transformers, adult anti-vaxxers have taken to Tiktok to identify and rally their “unvaccinated brothers and sisters.”
In videos posted to the app, people claiming to be unvaccinated can be seen touching three fingers to their mouths and holding it up in a salute, while a four-note “mockingjay” whistle can be heard in the background.
The gesture and sound are both from the movie and book series The Hunger Games, in which 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen finds herself competing in a televised fight to the death with 23 other teenagers in the post-apocalyptic, futuristic society of Panem. As the franchise progresses, the salute and song come to represent the citizens’ rebellion against the powerful and violent government.
In Thailand, Myanmar, Hong Kong and other countries, the gesture has also been used as a symbol of opposition, revolution and pro-democracy.
In 2014, the salute was even banned in Thailand, after it was widely used in demonstrations against the military coup d’etat.
But now, it’s being used by so-called anti-vaxxers to show their opposition to voluntary vaccinations against COVID19, and who are “calling all” their “unvaccinated brothers and sisters” to identify themselves in the comments or their own videos.
By clicking on the song under a creator’s video, anyone can press the “use this sound” option to create their own content or to view other videos that have featured the sound.
While this allows for antivaxxers to find one another, it also means that trolls and those who have taken (or plan on taking) the COVID-19 vaccine can poke fun at the self-identified “unvaccinated.”
“What is this? Like, first off, no one is forcing any of these people to get a vaccine and this isn’t the Hunger Games,” said @cameronshank, using the sound. “You’re not going to the Gulag for not getting vaccinated.”
In fact, whoever created the
Mockingjay call on the app has even renamed the sound to “SCREW ANTIVAXXERS AND GET YOUR VACCINE.” ‘I am Optimus Prime’
In other videos posted on Tiktok, unvaccinated users have been portraying themselves as the “survivors” of the pandemic because they didn’t get their COVID-19 shot.
In several of the Tiktoks, audio from the 2007 movie “Transformers” plays as users face away from the camera with their hands on their hips. Text is also overlaid on top of these videos, identifying them as a “message” to the “last remaining” or “surviving” unvaccinated people.
“I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge under among stars. We are here,” says actor Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, in the sound.
Several of the videos have hundreds of thousands of views and comments from people identifying themselves as unvaccinated and using the phrase “Autobots unite,” with many saying they refuse to be a “lab rat” for the vaccine.
While Tiktok might be primarily known as an app for sketch comedy, music and dancing, it’s also become a vehicle for incorrect medical and political information.
In February, the company released a “Transparency Report” detailing its efforts to counter COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation, as well as misinformation on the United States 2020 elections. Between July 1 and Dec. 31, at least 51,000 videos were removed from Tiktok for promoting COVID-19 misinformation, while more than 347,000 videos were removed in the United States for election misinformation.
“Tiktok’s Community Guidelines prohibit content that’s false or misleading, including misinformation related to COVID-19, vaccines, and anti-vaccine disinformation more broadly,” said the company on a post to its website.
The app also doesn’t allow any paid advertisements that advocate against vaccinations, and works with “fact-checking partners,” such as Politifact and the Associated Free Press, to assess the accuracy of content concerning the virus.
In Canada, more than 58 per cent of residents have received their first shot of the COVID19 vaccine, while 5.7 per cent have both doses.
“Scientific and medical evidence show that vaccination can help protect you against COVID-19. Studies are also showing that vaccinated people may have less severe illness if they do become ill from COVID-19,” says the federal government’s website. “Only vaccines that are proven to be safe, effective and of high quality are authorized for use in Canada.”
In videos posted to the app, people claiming to be unvaccinated can be seen touching three fingers to their mouths and holding it up in a salute, while a four-note “mockingjay” whistle can be heard in the background. The gesture and sound are both from the movie and book series The Hunger Games.