Negative Online Support Groups

This very brief mini-chapter was designed to simply introduce and frame negative online support groups to improve the overall flow of the following two chapters. Online support groups can be advantageous as well as disadvantageous. Online support groups can be very helpful especially those allowing patients to learn more about those like them. However, negative online support groups generally support behavior that society finds objectionable and harmful. While some of these online websites associated with vaccination hesitancy and especially vaccine resistance have defenders, other negative online support groups are much more nefarious. While motives to create or contribute to these groups had best be left to the psychological expert community, they remain on the Internet. While some Internet providers have removed many of them, they easily return with new domain names.