Blowing Away Sadness [2010 original with AI background adjustment]
There is a particular stereotype about the people who spread misinformation on the Internet. Generally speaking, we imagine that they’re middle-aged single/divorced men who have nothing better to do than gripe about everything and have the technological skills to spread their hate of all things by using bots they’ve created. This has been the mental picture we’ve been encouraged to hold for years now and we’ve happily played along, assuming that these lonely souls are just creepy guys who are fat, lazy, and jobless.
Turns out, we were wrong. New research published this past week (May 30) in Science affirms a 2019 study showing that the people most responsible for 90% of all misinformation spread on social media are women! Specifically, older women with an average age of 58, and largely Republican (64%). They make up 60% of the 2000 so-called superspreaders that dominate social media. One in 20 internet users follows at least one of these superspreaders and shares the misinformation they post. No bots. Just a bunch of old ladies with an agenda sitting around hitting the retweet button on X over and over and over until their casserole is done.
The researcher stated, “It does not seem like supersharing is a one-off attempt to influence elections by tech-savvy individuals, but rather a longer-term corrosive socio-technical process that contaminates the information ecosystem for some part of society.”
Two key words in that sentence: corrosive and contaminates. This is critical because such labels potentially limit this kind of communication from the shield of free speech. By now, we should all understand that the First Amendment guarantee of speech does not cover language that is potentially harmful to others. If we can prove that the deliberate and intentional sharing of misinformation is harmful, then it becomes illegal and the persons involved would be subject to prosecution.
Sure, no one likes the image of seeing grandma in handcuffs, but then, we didn’t imagine that instead of pestering her daughter-in-law about the grandkids grandma was making a deliberate attempt to destroy Democracy, either. Because of this misinformation, our elections are in danger. People who vote are making choices based on this misinformation and the result is that we get more people like Marjorie Taylor Greene making fools of themselves and the people they represent.
The authors of both studies, as well as other experts in the field, think that platforms should limit the number of times someone can “share” something. The suggested number is 50 retweets a day. I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say there’s no way in hell that Elon Musk is going to limit a damn thing on X. He doesn’t give a shit. He simply wants users and he doesn’t care what kind of bullshit they share.
Instead, I think people like you and I have to be a lot more aggressive about blocking people the first time we see something stupid show up in our newsfeeds. While Breitbart, InfoWars, and Gatewaypundit are the original source of most fake news, I would add Newsmax and Fox News to the list as well. Block them. Block everyone who shares their stories. Remember, you don’t have to follow them for their shit to show up in your newsfeed. Block them and, depending on which social media site you’re on, make sure you tell them that the material is offensive and false so that their misinformation is shared with fewer people.
Our Democracy is far too valuable to let a bunch of bigoted, homophobic, addle-brained, cookie-burning old ladies destroy it. Block the living hell out of them and let your DA (who is also an elected official) know that you consider misinformation damaging to the public. Let’s make it illegal. Shall we?
There is a particular stereotype about the people who spread misinformation on the Internet. Generally speaking, we imagine that they’re middle-aged single/divorced men who have nothing better to do than gripe about everything and have the technological skills to spread their hate of all things by using bots they’ve created. This has been the mental picture we’ve been encouraged to hold for years now and we’ve happily played along, assuming that these lonely souls are just creepy guys who are fat, lazy, and jobless.
Turns out, we were wrong. New research published this past week (May 30) in Science affirms a 2019 study showing that the people most responsible for 90% of all misinformation spread on social media are women! Specifically, older women with an average age of 58, and largely Republican (64%). They make up 60% of the 2000 so-called superspreaders that dominate social media. One in 20 internet users follows at least one of these superspreaders and shares the misinformation they post. No bots. Just a bunch of old ladies with an agenda sitting around hitting the retweet button on X over and over and over until their casserole is done.
The researcher stated, “It does not seem like supersharing is a one-off attempt to influence elections by tech-savvy individuals, but rather a longer-term corrosive socio-technical process that contaminates the information ecosystem for some part of society.”
Two key words in that sentence: corrosive and contaminates. This is critical because such labels potentially limit this kind of communication from the shield of free speech. By now, we should all understand that the First Amendment guarantee of speech does not cover language that is potentially harmful to others. If we can prove that the deliberate and intentional sharing of misinformation is harmful, then it becomes illegal and the persons involved would be subject to prosecution.
Sure, no one likes the image of seeing grandma in handcuffs, but then, we didn’t imagine that instead of pestering her daughter-in-law about the grandkids grandma was making a deliberate attempt to destroy Democracy, either. Because of this misinformation, our elections are in danger. People who vote are making choices based on this misinformation and the result is that we get more people like Marjorie Taylor Greene making fools of themselves and the people they represent.
The authors of both studies, as well as other experts in the field, think that platforms should limit the number of times someone can “share” something. The suggested number is 50 retweets a day. I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say there’s no way in hell that Elon Musk is going to limit a damn thing on X. He doesn’t give a shit. He simply wants users and he doesn’t care what kind of bullshit they share.
Instead, I think people like you and I have to be a lot more aggressive about blocking people the first time we see something stupid show up in our newsfeeds. While Breitbart, InfoWars, and Gatewaypundit are the original source of most fake news, I would add Newsmax and Fox News to the list as well. Block them. Block everyone who shares their stories. Remember, you don’t have to follow them for their shit to show up in your newsfeed. Block them and, depending on which social media site you’re on, make sure you tell them that the material is offensive and false so that their misinformation is shared with fewer people.
Our Democracy is far too valuable to let a bunch of bigoted, homophobic, addle-brained, cookie-burning old ladies destroy it. Block the living hell out of them and let your DA (who is also an elected official) know that you consider misinformation damaging to the public. Let’s make it illegal. Shall we?
Share this:
Like this:
You might also like