Collecting and analyzing humorous pro- and anivaccination memes: Technical and ethical challenges

Our case study sheds light on how to collect and analyze humorous memes on a sensitive and polarized topic: vaccination. First, we outline the technical challenges of creating comparable datasets of memes that reflect a range of different stances, given mainstream and social media policies to combat disinformation (which often result in censored and deleted antivaccination humor). Second, we focus on the ethical side of such inquiry and provide guidelines for conducting research on this and other controversial issues. Collecting and publishing memes which contain misinformation and/or strongly advocate for the exclusion of a certain group requires ethical caution and extensive academic commentary. Researchers also have to acknowledge their own views on the controversial issue and mitigate their subjectivity by making their analysis as multidimensional as possible.