Antivaxxers Are Using the Carrot Emoji to Disguise Talking About the Jab

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Marc Owen Jones, a disinformation researcher and associate professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University, shared screenshots of the carrot emoji discourse in the wild, as he says he was invited to join an antivax Facebook group. Based on Jones’ screenshots, the ramblings of these antivaxxers are delightfully incoherent. “My sister, 57, rushed to the hospital with breathing problems. She has two 🥕🥕 and the b🥕,” one poster writes.

It’s not immediately clear if all of these posts are referencing the two-dose covid-19 vaccines and additional boosters currently available, but it is clear that this is a coordinated attempt by group members and administrators to avoid Facebook’s AI content filter. A screenshot Jones shared in a subsequent tweet of an alleged communication from a moderator of the group to its members reiterates the important of “coding” messages in the group. The poster also says that group moderators will delete posts that they believe will ping Facebook’s content monitoring AI. “[C]oding is important and carrots are to date not picked up by AI censors,” the message reads.

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Jones and Facebook did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment.

Facebook does remove covid-19 misinformation from their platform, stating in their Help Center that it will remove “Claims that COVID-19 vaccines are experimental, if the context of the claim also suggests that vaccinated people are taking part in a medical experiment,” and “Claims that COVID-19 vaccines kill or seriously harm people.” The platform also claimed in a press release from August 2021 to have removed 20 million pieces of covid-19 misinformation from Facebook and Instagram globally. However, they’re reportedly losing interest in the good fight, as Meta expressed interest via blog post in July 2022 in reassessing how important the removal of covid-19 misinformation really is.

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What’s interesting, and equally scary, about the carrot coded messaging of medical misinformation in this instance is the power of group think. Though the bright side is that antivax appears to be a decreasing, albeit still very vocal, minority, vaccine hesitancy is reportedly on the decline.

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