Tides of poisonous falsehoods washing over social media
Puny barricades put up by well-meaning gatekeepers at Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, fail to stem hurricane-force surges of conspiracy theories, wild speculations, and deliberate lies—all driven, largely, by hate. Social media tech giants have deployed thousands of fact-checkers to keep ceaseless waves of dangerous misinformation at bay, to little effect.
Sorry if metaphors of unchecked waters of doom are overblown, but this is what it feels like to me: the social media landscape is inundated by falsehoods—many of which are playful, engaging, entertaining, and just plain silly, but too many of which are mean-spirited, hateful, and threatening to a civil society. Much of this landscape has become dark and sinister. Where’s the balance? Darned if I know.
This is evident in a Washington Post editorial by three writers analyzing the social media backlash against the caravan of asylum seekers struggling through Mexico en route to the U.S. See: False narratives swarming through social media
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