I have close family affected by this, so let me be clear and say antivax views have always deeply bothered me. But I did not think it was such a threat to the safety of Australians until today.

After seeing the protesting/rioting that has been happening in Melbourne and Sydney to a lesser degree, I decided to download telegram and have see how easy it would be to find channels that particular family members of mine would probably be immersed in.

Holy. Shit.

Within minutes and with no former knowledge of Telegram, I had found prolific white supremacy/pro-slavery groups, antivax groups, American-Australian far-right political groups. I never understood what my family were immersing themselves in when they went into these echo chambers. Post after post of misinformation, and all of the above-mentioned groups all-to-easily bled into one another with their shared views.

One example is a tiktok video that a host of Infowars was watching, claiming that a baby was paralysed by Covid vaccine trials. The tiktok username was pixelated as hell, but I managed to find the original account, and as shady as the tiktok account appeared, the original video didn't even claim the baby was paralysed by Covid vaccine, but rather DTaP vaccination. Yet, hundreds of comments on the telegram post, saying how they're so scared of all the babies that will die from Covid vaccines.

Next, a post of a video taken of a video playing on another phone. The man taking the video claims he has to film the video playing on this phone before it disappears, and that he can't download it from the messenger app on this phone, which means they must not want the video shared, so he's got to make sure they don't make this video disappear. It's a video of a man with no credentials listed, saying that the Aluminium in vaccines is different to the aluminium they have tested for safety in 'the studies', but that the 'European studies' have found that the aluminium nanoparticles present in vaccines go 'straight to the brain' and their effects have never been studied. Hundreds of alarming comments to follow.

Next, reports that the Australian military is bombing the protesters in Melbourne, shaking the whole city. Comments follow, claiming that the government is covering it up by reporting an Earthquake.

Next, a video of the leader of a political party supported by my own family members. Riccardo Bosi explains how in the coming days, weeks and months, there will be reports of crimes so extreme by those in 'the highest ranks of government'. And that many government employees in health, justice, education, etc. who continue to stand by are 'signing their own death warrants' (MAJOR Handmaid's Tale vibes, literally gave me chills).

This was all in my lunch break. Group after group, each as prolific as the last, with members ranging from the thousands to the tens of thousands for Australian groups (hundreds of thousands for some international groups). All of this alarming, graphic and dangerous material instantly accessible, and without any voices of reason to be found anywhere in the discussions. This is all without even touching Gab, or worse, 8kun (8chan) and the likes on the dark web. Every group had consistent links inviting people deeper into the rabbit hole.

I feel angry, concerned and bewildered, knowing that this is so much bigger and more dangerous than I thought. I don't know how my family members, including a dentist with two masters and a health university lecturer also with two masters (both in their late 50s), could forfeit their reason so easily and wholeheartedly believe this shit. I don't know what to do from here. I've been avoiding talking about this stuff, but maybe it's worth really challenging them. I genuinely feel like this is a threat to the safety of Australian society. Having just watched Handmaid's Tale, I'm probably way too paranoid, but holy hell the alarm bells.

Be safe, everyone.