It-which-must-not-be-named: COVID-19 misinformation, tactics to profit from it and to evade content moderation on YouTube

COVID-19 misinformation became accessible and profitable through social media platforms, such as YouTube. Here we investigate if Brazilian YouTube channels previously identified vaccine spreaders would also misinform their audience about COVID-19. Our analysis sample consists of 6 months content (3,318 videos) from 50 channels. We establish a protocol to classify the types spread by creators, describing how evade moderation—disguising, replicating, dispersing misinformation—and what tactics creators use profit. shows that these exploited promote themselves, profiting in process.