Homophobic misinformation is making it harder to contain the spread of monkeypox

That job is being made harder by false, often homophobic theories that are spreading on all major social media platforms, according to research carried out for MIT Technology Review by the Center for Countering Digital Hate. These false claims are making it harder to convince the public that monkeypox can affect everyone, and they could dissuade people from reporting potential infections. Some of this misinformation overlaps with familiar pandemic conspiracy theories, attacking Bill Gates and "global elites'' or suggesting that the virus was developed in a lab. But much of it is directly homophobic and attempts to pin blame for the outbreak on LGBTQ communities. Some Twitter posts claim countries where anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is illegal are the areas where monkeypox cases are highest, or call the virus "god's revenge."