CCDH is a Br*tish NGO intended to counter online misinformation & hate (I think by hate they mean reactionaries and bigots).
Selected from the executive summary:
"Analysis of the online anti-vaccine movement has identified a dozen leading anti-vaxxers who operate businesses or organisations with significant revenues. These twelve are responsible for up to 70 percent of anti-vaccine content shared to Facebook. Three of these twelve - Joseph Mercola, Del Bigtree and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - are so influential that they account for nearly half of this content."
"Anti-vaxxers represent an industry with annual revenues of at least $36 million, based on a limited view of their finances based on self-reported filings and publicly available revenue estimates for 22 organisations belonging to twelve of the industry’s biggest earners. This anti-vaxx industry employs at least 266 people."
"Anti-vaxxers have received more than $1.5 million in federal loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) designed to help businesses through the Covid pandemic. The largest such beneficiary was the anti-vaxx entrepreneur Joseph Mercola, whose business received $617,000 in total."
"Some leading anti-vaxxers are earning six-figure salaries for leading roles at anti-vaccine non-profits, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who earns $255,000 a year as Chairman of Children’s Health Defense."
"The anti-vaxx industry’s total social media following of 62 million could be worth up to $1.1 billion to social media platforms based on publicly available figures for the amount of revenue social media platforms make per impression or per user where that information is not available."
"Anti-vaxx organisations led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Del Bigtree and Larry Cook privately admit in legal filings that they are reliant on mainstream social media platforms for reach and revenue, saying that deplatforming has curtailed their ability to spread anti-vaccine messages."
Profiled and prolific anti-vaxxers (responsible for up to 70% of antivax content):
- Joseph Mercola
- Andrew Wakefield
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Del Bigtree
- Larry Cook
- Ty and Charlene Bollinger
- Sherri Tenpenny
- Mike Adams
- Rashid Buttar
- Barbara Loe Fisher
- Sayer Ji
- Kelly Brogan