A dizzying weeks-long news cycle has triggered a parallel explosion of misinformation online that experts warn could make it harder to parse what’s real versus what’s fake as the 2024 elections get underway.
In the space of just two weeks, the political landscape has transformed, starting with the attempted assassination of former President Trump. The shooting, along with the dismissal of one of his most serious federal charges, led directly to a jubilant Republican National Convention, where he was officially selected as the Republican Party’s next nominee. Shortly afterwards, the director of the Secret Service resigned due to the security breach surrounding the attempt on Trump’s life.
This was followed just days later by President Biden’s announcement that he was withdrawing from the race, a fervent news cycle that had been weeks in the making as Biden faced mounting pressure from Democrats to drop out after a dismal debate performance on 27 of June.
Now, the world is coming to terms with Vice President Harris as the next likely Democratic nominee – something that seemed unthinkable just a few months ago.
The extraordinary sequence of events gave Americans little time to digest the flow of news, creating the perfect breeding ground for false allegations to spread.
“In fact, it seems natural that we have a lot of conspiracy theories,” said Mike Rothschild, a conspiracy theory researcher.
Misinformation and disinformation have been cited as a potential risk since the beginning of this year, as billions of people headed to the polls to vote in elections around the world. Since the assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month, conspiracy theories and false and misleading information have been circulating online, sometimes at ferocious speeds.
Some of the misinformation included false claims that the assassination attempt on Trump was “staged” and that the shooter had been identified before authorities officially released that information. A made-up statement purporting to be from former President Jimmy Carter’s office suggested he had died, when that was not the case.
When Biden announced he would drop out of the race shortly after testing positive for COVID-19, conspiracy theories quickly emerged that the president had been stricken with a terminal illness or had died. These false claims were amplified by conspiracist Alex Jones, right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk, and other prominent social media users.
The unprecedented nature of the news cycle has also given rise to misleading conjecture about Harris, including about the circumstances of her rise within the Democratic Party.
Right-wing activist and columnist Matt Walsh, for example, shared a post with his 2.9 million followers on the social platform three decades.
Harris’ relationship with Brown has previously been used against her, including in 2020 when she campaigned for the presidential nomination. They dated in the 1990s, years after he separated from his wife.
“This has been leveraged against probably almost every female politician – always, everywhere,” said Alice Marwick, co-director of the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina, regarding suggestions that Harris used the previous relationship to professionally . advance.
“This is nothing new,” she continued. “But because they’re so timeworn — because they’re so comfortable, they’re tropes that people are familiar with — they can be very sticky, and as a result, it’s very easy to tie them to more nefarious or conspiratorial things.”
The same can be said of claims that Harris’s political success is due to her race, said Freddy Cruz, a researcher and program manager at the Western States Center. He pointed to unsubstantiated claims by some Republicans that Harris was a “DEI hire” selected to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the White House, or that the “deep state” pushed Biden toward a more supportive Harris.
Several experts have drawn parallels to the political rise of former President Obama, who was mired in conspiracy theories as he sought to become the country’s first black president. Most prominent was the unsubstantiated claim that Obama was not born in America and was therefore constitutionally ineligible to be president. Trump, then a celebrity and businessman, was among the most prominent adherents of the false theory.
“We’re seeing this as kind of a full circle moment,” Cruz said.
It is not uncommon for historical events to spark conspiracy theories. False narratives span American history, from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rothschild said people are wired to look for patterns and find “order in chaos,” sometimes causing people to connect dots where they shouldn’t.
Anonymous accounts have gained popularity over the years, with Elon Musk’s X paying content creators and monetize viral posts based on engagement metrics.
Social media companies relaxing their content moderation policies is “the ultimate irony” for the right, according to Joan Donovan, a professor of journalism and emerging media studies at Boston University, because Republicans are also often at the center. of such misinformation.
According to Walter Scheirer, author of “A History of Fake Things on the Internet,” the misinformation, disinformation and political satire that people take for real information and then amplify at breakneck speed will not abate anytime soon as that people continue to be consumed by social media.
“The responsibility now falls on the users themselves to check the facts and find out if something is real,” he said.
Memes are another area that proves problematic, Scheirer said, because they are often encapsulated as a joke.
“Because it’s funny, it kind of draws you in. And then suddenly you’re diving deeper. And there are many communities that create memes for different purposes, but they are a very effective vector for misinformation,” Scheirer added.
With just 100 days until the November presidential election, taking a cautious approach to online information can help minimize the spread of false claims, Rothschild said.
“What people can do is disconnect and really try to breathe,” he said.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
