This Week in Misinformation: Trump Subpoenaed, Stone and Co. Owned, Alex Jones Pwn'd, PayPal Incident
13 October 2022
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Reliability scores for media outlets cited in the summary are in parentheses for each, courtesy of the terrific folks at Ad Fontes Media.
Now, on to our top stories.
The January 6th Committee voted to subpoena Donald Trump, and the militants who wanted to help Trump are getting owned in court.
In what was probably its final hearing, the select committee presented new evidence showing Trump plotted to overturn an election he knew he lost and put him under subpoena to provide documents and testimony (CNBC, 46.09). The vote was unanimous, and in the resolution sponsor Liz Cheney’s statement she argued that it was an absolute must to hear from Trump because he is the key player in the insurrection and his lieutenants have all pleaded the Fifth.
The hearing aired dramatic footage, not before seen, of Congressional leaders taking their jobs seriously as the attack was underway, getting on the horn with the Pentagon and others because the President was doing nothing to help (ABC News, 46.73). The footage thoroughly debunks Trump’s lie that Pelosi didn’t request assistance--though you can expect to still see that one zombie around.
With Roger Stone another focus of the hearing (USA Today, 45.23), it feels notable that there has been so much action in court proceedings against his associates the Proud Boys--one leader has now pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy (Department of Justice)--and the Oath Keepers, about whose violent ideations (CBS News, 46.10) and communications with the Secret Service (NBC News, 45.59) the public is learning a lot through their ongoing trial in Washington, DC (Politico, 42.78).
Alex Jones will have to pay close to $1 billion for lies he told on his show about Sandy Hook victims and their families.
The jury determining what damages the InfoWars host came to their decision this week (KCRA 3 Waterbury, -), awarding large amounts to each of the eight plaintiffs in this suit brought in Connecticut. The total $965 is on top of around $50 million he has been ordered to pay in a separate Texas lawsuit.
Palpable relief and intense emotion filled the courtroom, according to a CNN (42.70) reporter who was there, as these families have been pursuing this case against Jones since 2018 over his hawking of hurtful conspiracy theories including that their slain children were actors. Jones, meanwhile, took to his microphone (BBC, 46.15) to say this verdict was only proof that the deep state is trying to stop him from telling the truth and that he did not plan on paying.
Some on the more normal side of the conservative infosphere welcomed this judgment and spoke in favor of the families. But more than a few personalities who also make their living from conspiracy theories, like Charlie Kirk and Benny Johnson, found novel ways to turn Jones into a victim of a sinister plot that will come for all who exercise their right to free speech.
A funny thing happened with PayPal, and Spotify took a step toward more content moderation.
Online payment processor PayPal put out a new terms of service that seemed to say that customers who put “misinformation” out through the platform would be fined up to $2,500 out of their balance. National Review (32.41) and other conservative outlets jumped on this news as an egregious overreach, but in the end the company claimed that language in the policy was issued in error (Reuters, 47.68). Doesn’t seem this will be a real issue (Reuters, 47.68) now that PayPal undid it, but the incident made a lot of headlines.
Spotify, meanwhile, went out and bought itself a company that does content moderation tech (Reuters, 47.68), notable because of the controversy the past couple years over its exclusive hosting of the misinformation-challenged Joe Rogan Experience podcast. The company, Kinzen (TechCrunch, 46.27), is good people, so I’m hopeful that this will lead to better quality of information and listener experience on Spotify.
What a bag, what a bag, what a bag, what mighty grab bag: Twitter blocks Florida's surgeon general for COVID misinformation, but then thinks better of it; Pew published a major study of the role alternative social media platforms play in our new information landscape; social media, in case you hadn’t noticed, amplifies misinformation more than good information; ahead of the midterms, misinformation in non-English languages is running amok and “midterm newspapers” (some paid for by billionaire Peter Thiel) are doing a bad job at informing the electorate; a lot of misinformation floods in after hurricanes; the U.S. government says it is trying to protect student loan borrowers from scammers; QAnon fans are making death threats against the creator of 8chan; a look at Michael Flynn’s revival roadshow; some postcards got sent out in Colorado and certain people would like this to be proof of massive voter fraud; Republicans in Arizona raised record money with misleading pitches about election audits; and the Supreme Court of course curtly rebuffed Mike Lindell’s 2020 election lawsuit.
All that, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin