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#misinformationatwork #001: Misinformation leads to real world action
A couple notable events from the past month serve as reminders that misinformation detaches people from reality and makes people do dangerous and harmful things—to their loved ones and strangers alike.
In London, thousands of people descended on Parliament to protest against COVID-19 public health measures, including a strong contingent with placards calling the pandemic a hoax and making unsubstantiated claims about the safety of approved vaccines. Anger over COVID-19-related restrictions had previously already brought people in the UK and across Europe into the streets a month before, where they advanced conspiracy theories and advocated for noncompliance with official recommendations to stay masked and distanced and to get vaccinated. This advocacy, contrary to the stated goal, has probably prolonged the period over which restrictions might be needed.
Rallies against human trafficking in Hollywood came back around last month. For the last couple years this has been a perennial favorite of QAnon and others who falsely believe that the real problem of child sex trafficking is on a sharp upswing (it isn’t).
Failing to deal with misinformation will likely lead to more of this, and worse.
If it weren’t for misinformation, three small children might still be alive in Reseda, California. Instead, in April their mother—who came to believe the kids were being pulled into a a nonexistent sex-trafficking ring involving most of her city—killed them and tried to flee the scene before being caught and arrested.
In February a mother in New Hampshire, apparently inspired by QAnon beliefs, is reported to have locked her small son and daughter in a closet in her house, set a fire, and waited for them to die. (The local fire chief happened to pass by the home and rushed his squad to the scene, saving the kids.)
Conspiracy theory-linked kidnappings have been reported in France, Colorado, Kentucky, and Utah.
As of late May, at least 79 QAnon adherents had been raised on criminal charges, including about half related to the storming of the Capitol on 6 January. Two were men who had attacked the same neighborhood pizza parlor in Washington, DC., one of whom did so carrying a loaded gun.
As we covered in the last edition, misinformation about the safety of the approved vaccines is making people reluctant to be immunized against COVID-19, making everyone less safe.
In the United Kingdom, arsonists damaged 77 telecommunications towers in the spring of 2020 because misinformation had circulated that 5G radiation could harm humans, including by infecting them with novel coronavirus. We could go on.
What you can do: Dig a little when a loved one begins to share odd messages directly to you, in family chats, or via social media to find out what is behind it. Millions of people in the United Statesbelieve in some really wrong things, according to polls and the experts who study this, and your family member might well be at risk. Keep up on big trends in misinformation (Prism can help!) so you can make connections if there are any. Most people who fall for misinformation do not hurt anyone or destroy property, or even go to a rally to persuade others to think like them. But being aware and catching this mindset early can help avoid less serious outcomes, too. Seek out assistance if something needs to be done and you aren’t sure what, or how.
China, Russia, Facebook, and QAnon?
Yahoo! News published a story saying that Chinese and Russian “administrators” of Facebook groups originated “nearly one-fifth” of all Q-Anon related posts, but there is little reason to believe that foreign governments or organizations are behind the conspiracy theory or its rapid growth in the U.S.
For one thing, the methodology of the study cited in the story is not terribly robust or straightforward. as misinformation researcher Marc-André Argentino (@_MAArgentino) pointed out in a detailed Twitter thread.
Others who have investigated the Q phenomenon have simply not given much credence to the notion that foreign powers should be credited with creating QAnon. Filmmaker Cullen Hoback, for example, chronicled the movement over many years, and his recent documentary points squarely at Ron Watkins—who admins the imageboard where Q posts—as being the author of at least some of those posts since 2018.
Q has not posted since shortly after the election, causing “who is behind Q” to fade in importance as a question. Ultimately, though, it doesn’t help anyone to falsely point the finger at China or Russia unless we get a good amount more corroboration for that claim.
What you can do: First, focus less on the perpetrators of specific disinformation campaigns, which less practical than strengthening yourself and the people you can reach against all kinds of misinformation. The former is whack-a-mole, while the latter is our only realistic way out of this mess. Second, remember that studies are only as reliable as the people who design and run them, so be on guard. Most of the time, more numbers does not correlate with more certainty.