Prism Metanews is a media company founded to help Americans become better consumers of the news as they consume the news. We have built an anti-misinformation ethos and commitment to improving our audience’s media literacy directly into our business model--from the ground up, not as an afterthought. Learn more about who we are and what we’re doing on our Substack page, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook!
Doozy of a week. Really.
First up, Republican faithful gathered in Dallas for the annual CPAC event, where many falsehoods about the 2020 election were again advanced as fact, including by keynote speaker and straw poll winner (by a yuge margin) Donald Trump. Notably, literal Q merch was on sale at the event.
Trafficking in lies about the election was bound to lead to problems for some, though, as the Republican Party’s top lawyer warned colleagues last year. For example, a federal judge in Michigan grilled Sidney Powell and other “Kraken” lawyers for failing to perform even minimal vetting of affidavits filed in their lawsuits. The judge may, after the hearing, recommend sanctions on these attorneys, possibly to extend to disbarment.
None of this has deterred the merry crew of believers in Arizona, however, as Republican officeholders have started to use the State Senate-directed audit of the tally to explicitly argue for overturning the election results in that state. This is, of course, music to the Q community’s ears.
Chinese-sourced conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus have been flooding the zone. The anti-COVID vaccine movement is growing its political sway in Washington, enjoying the support of conspiracy-minded militias out in the rest of the country, and scoring policy wins against child vaccinations of all kinds in Tennessee. Prominent figures in conservative media are still railing against COVID vaccines. COVID-related misinformation has surged on a new TikTok audio feature and on Telegram.
But the administration of Joe Biden seems determined to do something about the problem, announcing through the Surgeon General that the U.S. Government has a plan to push back against the “urgent threat” of COVID misinformation.
Q world is keeping the momentum from earlier events going with plans for a confab in Las Vegas in October: Republican politicians to appear! Elite ticket packages available! There are signs that the Q community may be moving to support the #FreeBritney movement, claiming the pop star is a victim of sex trafficking. Some people who very much like the Q gang found out--as the Q Shaman did after the Capitol attack--that it is all too easy to get on the... cabal side of things when you fraternize with a conspiracy-minded online mob.
Twitter has been verifying obviously fake users, and scams related to wrongly verified accounts have been proliferating there and on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook appears set to pull back on the CrowdTangle tool that it provides for researchers to analyze a small cross-section of its data—alarming disinformation sleuths and fact checkers alike.
Great events happened or are upcoming on misinformation and media literacy. The Aspen Institute published the interim report of its information disorder commission. The European Commission put out a call for parties to join an anti-disinformation “code.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer believes its experimental approach to lying politicians (don’t report on their lies!) is working and plans to continue.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
— Kevin
CPAC
Five takeaways from the CPAC conference in Dallas (The Hill)
Live tweeting CPAC (@MC_Hyperbole via Twitter)
Fact check: Untethered to reality, Trump lies over and over about the 2020 election at CPAC (CNN)
Fox News aired a legal disclaimer when Trump started airing 2020 election conspiracy theories in his CPAC speech (Business Insider)
YouTube deletes Trump video, freezes CPAC account (Washington Times)
CPAC attendees, with one notable exception, tell CNN the election was stolen (@donie via Twitter)
Q merchandise displayed at CPAC booth (@stevanzetti via Twitter)
THE 2020 ELECTION
The Republican Party’s top lawyer called election fraud arguments by Trump’s lawyers a ‘joke’ that could mislead millions (Washington Post)
Trump lost the suburbs because he didn't get enough votes there (@JonahDispatch via Twitter)
The viral Twitter thread that explains right-wing conspiracy theorizing — if only inadvertently (Washington Post)
Trump lawyers might be penalized over Michigan election case (Associated Press)
Judge eyes sanctions on pro-Trump lawyers who claimed voter fraud (Reuters)
A Federal Judge Holds ‘Kraken’ Lawyers’ Feet to the Fire at Sanctions Hearing. Lin Wood Tried to Distance Himself from It All. (Law & Crime)
Live tweeting the Kraken lawyers sanctions hearing (@KlasfeldReports via Twitter)
Federal judge challenges what vetting the Kraken lawyers did of any election-related affidavits filed in lawsuits (@KlasfeldReports via Twitter)
Against judge’s instructions, Lin Wood posted recorded portions of the hearing on Telegram (@questauthority via Twitter)
On advice of counsel, Lin Wood deleted his posts with hearing recordings (@DaveThomas5150 via Twitter)
Attorney for Kraken lawyers asks that video of sanctions hearing be made public because media coverage presented “incorrect” narrative (@jacq_thomsen via Twitter)
Michigan State Secretary: 'There need to be consequences' for lying Trump lawyers (MSNBC)
Michigan Asks for $11K in Legal Fees for Defending State in Donald Trump Election Suit (Newsweek)
Michigan GOP executive who blamed Trump for election loss resigns leadership post (Detroit Free Press)
OAN reports that fraudulent Biden votes have been found in Georgia (One America News)
Scottsdale woman indicted for casting dead mother’s ballot (Arizona Mirror)
ARIZONA AUDIT
US House Committee on Oversight and Reform is launching an investigation into the Arizona audit (@Garrett_Archer via Twitter)
State Senator and vice chair of State Senate Judiciary Committee Wendy Rogers tweets about a “new era of 1776” if election fraud not found (@Q__talk via Twitter)
Conservative pollster Rasmussen retweets Wendy Rogers saying ‘the numbers don’t match in Arizona’ (@Rasmussen_Poll via Twitter)
Wendy Rogers tweets to demand justice for a stolen election as State Senate president says the final audit report will go to the committee she chairs first (@JMShumway via Twitter)
Arizona State Senator Calls For New Election, Says Biden Electors Must Be Recalled (Newsweek)
QAnon promoter boosts tweet by Wendy Rogers in which she calls for Arizona’s electors to be recalled and for the state to conduct a new election (@PokerPolitics via Twitter)
VACCINES, ETC.
China Fires Back at Biden with Conspiracy Theories About Maryland Lab (Foreign Policy)
Anti-vaxxers gain power on right, triggering new fears (The Hill)
Under pressure after the Capitol riot, self-styled militias are regrouping around anti-vaxx conspiracy theories (Business Insider)
Tennessee abandons vaccine outreach to minors — not just for COVID-19 (The Tennessean)
Antivax activists were laying plans in early 2020 to use COVID to undermine confidence in all kinds of vaccines, and now: Tennessee (@noUpside via Twitter)
California Woman Arrested For Making Fake Vaccine Cards, Justice Department Says (Forbes)
Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Campaign Echoes ‘Doctor’s Plot’ Rhetoric (Truth or Fiction)
Study highlights media's important role in debunking COVID-19 misinformation (Phys.org)
Laura Ingraham Doubles Down on Anti—Vaccine Claims: 'Experimental Drug' (Newsweek)
Whether Republicans Get Vaccinated Has A Lot To Do With If They Watch Fox News … Or OANN (FiveThirtyEight)
Newsmax host Rob Schmitt suggests vaccines are “against nature” (@JasonSCampbell via Twitter)
Newsmax vouches for vaccines after host Rob Schmitt says shots are ‘against nature’ (Washington Post)
TikTok Sounds used to spread COVID vaccine misinformation - think tank (Reuters)
On TikTok, audio gives new virality to misinformation (NBC News)
Mis- and disinformation about vaccines is widespread on Telegram (@NovelSci via Twitter)
GOVERNMENT/PUBLIC POLICY
White House prepares to fight back in the Covid vaccine disinformation war (CNN)
Surgeon general calls out platforms over COVID-19 misinformation (The Verge)
Surgeon general warns misinformation an 'urgent threat' to public health (ABC News)
White House Press Secretary says the U.S. Surgeon General will release a report Thursday that will address the federal government's plan to push back against COVID-19 misinformation (@CBSNews via Twitter)
Select committee on Capitol attack to hear police testimony July 27 (The Hill)
Senate confirms Jen Easterly as head of U.S. cyber agency (Politico)
QANON & COMPANY
QAnon Pivots Its Exiled Online Movement to the Real World (VICE)
Child Sexual Exploitation as a Tool of the Conspiracy Theorist (Insight Into Hate by Marc-André Argentino)
A Video Spreading Conspiracy Theories About a Satanic Sex-Trafficking Ring Is Going Viral (Rolling Stone)
PA state Sen. Doug Mastriano promoted QAnon on Twitter over 50 times (Media Matters)
QAnon influencer QAnon John has announced that Arizona state rep. & Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem will speak at the next QAnon conference in Las Vegas (@AlKapDC via Twitter)
Three tiers of tickets, starting at $650 each, are being advertised for the "Patriots Roundup" QAnon conference in Las Vegas in October (@daithaigilbert via Twitter)
Britney Spears’ QAnon Fans Have a Wild Plan to ‘Save’ Her (VICE)
QAnon-Loving Pastor Running for Congress Accused of Satanism by, uh, QAnon (VICE)
MAGA Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer Discovers the Downside of QAnon (Right Wing Watch)
Q promoter "QAnon John" tries to assure fans that a picture he posted of eating pizza with his wife was really about pizza (@willsommer via Twitter)
Pastor says that "if Donald Trump is not back in the office by the end of this year, I'm going to be shocked" (@RightWingWatch via Twitter)
PLATFORMS
Coordinated fake accounts get verified on Twitter (@conspirator0 via Twitter)
99 accounts in fake network tweeted 14,600 times, mostly about Elon Musk (@EJGibney via Twitter)
Beware verification scams on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: 'Red flags going off' (c|net)
Inside Facebook’s Data Wars (New York Times)
All verified signatories to the International Fact-Checking Network have been provided with access to Facebook analysis tool CrowdTangle, and the service is essential to their work in detecting mis/disinformation in 60+ countries (@baybarsorsek via Twitter)
Most big stories about disinfo you've read in the last few years relied on CrowdTangle in some way, and now Facebook seems to want to cut off that transparency (@BrandyZadrozny via Twitter)
The new "Group Experts" feature Facebook is testing seems optimized to exacerbate, not mitigate, misinformation/radicalization (@PeterD_Adams via Twitter)
Why Facebook really, really doesn’t want to discourage extremism (Washington Post)
Reporters uncover new revelations about tech giant Facebook and CEO during Trump era (MSNBC)
Researcher finds conspiracy theories, paranoia, and vaccine disinformation on Mike Lindell’s Frank platform (@NovelSci via Twitter)
GENERAL/OTHER
Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder Announces Priorities, Publishes Interim Report (Aspen Digital)
Conference 16-18 July: Media Literacy + Social Justice (National Association for Media Literacy Education)
Virtual Symposium: Data & Democracy, Panel on Media & Misinformation (#Data4Democracy)
Joint call for interest to join the Code of Practice on Disinformation (European Commission)
IFCN launches working group to address harassment against fact-checkers (Poynter)
Here are Twitter’s most prolific citizen fact-checkers (Poynter)
Media accountability in a world of disinformation (Bulletin of Atomic Scientists)
Ignoring false statements and stunts by politicians is working well so far: Letter from the Editor (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Megyn Kelly: Media's portrayal of Jan. 6 'so much worse than it actually was' (The Hill)
Emails Reveal Cops Fanned Flames as FBI Debunked Antifa Hoax (The Daily Beast)
How Tucker Carlson became the voice of White grievance (Washington Post)
Washington Post reporter speaks with Tucker Carlson’s first-grade teacher, who Carlson lied about on air (@joshsternberg via Twitter)
Many Americans embrace falsehoods about critical race theory (Reuters)
Teens and Misinformation (Top of Mind Podcast via BYU Radio)
The Guardian reported on supposedly leaked Russian plans to aid Trump in 2016, but caution is advised because the story carries signs of a disinformation operation (@C_C_Krebs via Twitter)