TW: COVID-19, Child Trafficking, Political Content
Earlier this month, I found myself consumed by this conspiracy theory online about how Wayfair was being used as a front for money laundering for child trafficking by third party sellers on the site. A Wayfair customer myself, I was familiar with some of these really strange customized items that would be listed at $10,000 or more. While I always found it odd, I never paid it much mind. While it was outrageous, I don't think the idea of third party sellers utilizing a large site such as Wayfair to money launder in this was is completely out of left field.
In digging into all of the tweets under this hashtag, I was exposed to some extremely unnerving and outlandish claims. I understand the outrage these people feel: if you read accounts of people presenting information as fact about the endangerment of our children, it would spur that feeling in people of "why aren't people talking about this!? Everyone must be in on it and that is why they aren't saying anything!!!" I found myself consumed by connecting these dots. Well, people do always call Hollywood a soulless town, maybe they are referencing the satanic cult of the Hollywood elite!?
Then, I disconnected. I thought about the credibility of the accounts I was reading. I thought about all of the truly crazy tweets related that I discredited at first glance. Okay, that person is off the rails, but the other more palatable responses fit the narrative that makes sense in my mind.
The term conspiracy theory is thought to have been coined in 1906, but the concept has been around much longer. Part of the appeal of a conspiracy theory, in my opinion, is that you feel you can get in on the ground floor. You feel like you know things people don't know. Its similar to true crime podcasts studying unsolved crimes: follow the string to find the truth.
This week, I read that Sincalir Broadcast Group planned to air Plandemic across their almost 300 television stations across the nation. The 26-minute conspiracy theory is laden with misinformation and debunked claims about COVID-19. In my opinion, this is extremely dangerous. Someone may see the "documentary" being given a qualified platform such as NBC 40 in Tallahassee or Fox17 in Nashville, as solidifying it as truth.
More concerning? The commander-in-chief deciding that his public musings on dangerous conspiracy theories can help his re-election. If you have 20-minutes, I think the below video from John Oliver's Last Week Tonight provided some great insight into the topic.
There are so many loud voices online challenging the idea of wearing a mask. Challenging the idea that COVID-19 is even a real disease. I could not help but draw connections between COVID-19 to the MERS outbreak in South Korea back in 2015 through this week's reading The
effects of SNS communication: How expressing and receiving information
predict MERS-preventive behavioral intentions in South Korea (Yoo, Choi and Park, 2016.)
"...84% of the rumors regarding H7N9 outbreaks were disseminated and transmitted by social media during the outbreaks in China. The spreading of rumors and misinformation via social media can cause panic among people and further lead to social chaos during an infectious disease emergency." (Yoo, Choi and Park, 2016)
We are seeing this play out in real time here in America, especially here in Florida. Social media, which has worked as the lifeline to the outside world for many during the early days of mass quarantines, has bread rumors and misinformation like wild-fire. Most viral videos of "Karens" out in the wild refusing to wear a mask, even in the threat of public humiliation, cite incorrect information spread online or utilize fake resources claiming they are exempt from wearing a mask.
Undoubtedly, social media can be the catalyst to provide late-breaking and important information. Social media can also give a platform to misinformation. Curtailing potentially dangerous information is something I think we will see play out over the course of the next few years as Twitter takes on some responsibility in this matter by banning certain users.
What are your thoughts?
This is a great post, and so detailed! Thanks for sharing. I love Last Week Tonight...they've been doing their best work this year even with the new remote environment and the piece on conspiracies is so important. Even though it was laden with jokes, his approach of finding non judgemental/confrontational ways to break through the noise and have conversations about misinformation is so helpful. I've actually been using it with a family member who is especially susceptible to misinformation, and actually made some headway with them this week!
ReplyDeleteThe misinformation spread in the United States during this pandemic is absolutely astounding. Social media giants like Twitter and Facebook need to bear the brunt of responsibility and start removing accounts that propagate lies, but I think this is also another instance where the K-12 educational system in the U.S. needs a long, hard look. A lot of Americans simply don't know enough about science and math to understand why the CDC recommends certain actions to stop the spread of this virus, and thus think that everything that comes out of that organization is a lie. This is not the fault of teachers, but instead is the fault of the system being set up so that poor school districts are underfunded and continue to stay that way for years and years. Relegating students to charter or private schools isn't any better. Betsy DeVos truly needs to go and we need to overhaul our K-12 education process by listening to teachers and utilizing the expertise of those who are actually leaders in education.
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