During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bigtree used his webcast The Highwire to amplify increasingly extreme claims about SARS-CoV-2 and the vaccines developed against it. The program promoted the unsupported theory that the virus had been created in a laboratory by the pharmaceutical industry, accused Anthony Fauci and public-health authorities of participating in a global conspiracy, and warned viewers that future vaccines might cause diabetes, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases without evidence. Bigtree went further by urging audiences to reject vaccination and suggesting that people should deliberately expose themselves to infection, framing the deaths of vulnerable people as a form of natural selection. Disinformation researchers described the show as a rallying point for pandemic conspiracy theorists. In July 2020, YouTube closed Bigtree’s account and channel for violating its rules against COVID-19 misinformation, while Facebook removed selected videos. The ban did not end the program: The Highwire moved toward its own website and alternative platforms such as Rumble, where it found audiences less constrained by conventional misinformation policies. The episode illustrates how platform moderation redirected, rather than eliminated, pandemic conspiracy broadcasting.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2020s
The Highwire’s COVID-19 Escalation and YouTube Shutdown
The Highwire / 2020s
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bigtree used his webcast The Highwire to amplify increasingly extreme claims about SARS-CoV-2 and the vaccines developed against it. The program promoted the unsupported theory that the virus had been created in a laboratory by the pharmaceutical industry, accused Anthony Fauci and public-health authorities of participating in a global conspiracy, and warned viewers that future vaccines might cause diabetes, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases without evidence. Bigtree went further by urging audiences to reject vaccination and suggesting that people should deliberately expose themselves to infection, framing the deaths of vulnerable people as a form of natural selection. Disinformation researchers described the show as a rallying point for pandemic conspiracy theorists. In July 2020, YouTube closed Bigtree’s account and channel for violating its rules against COVID-19 misinformation, while Facebook removed selected videos. The ban did not end the program: The Highwire moved toward its own website and alternative platforms such as Rumble, where it found audiences less constrained by conventional misinformation policies. The episode illustrates how platform moderation redirected, rather than eliminated, pandemic conspiracy broadcasting.
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