This should be of interest to some here..as they are part and parcel of what the article is talking about:
The dangerous cycle that keeps conspiracy theories in the news — and Trump’s tweets
"Conspiracy theories aren’t fueled by facts; they are fueled by attention. On Saturday, a baseless conspiracy theory about the death of Jeffrey Epstein gorged itself on a feast of the stuff, as a viral hashtag spammed by believers trended on Twitter. In less than a day, a viral tweet from a conservative Internet personality promoting that hashtag — #ClintonBodyCount — was retweeted by the president.
This rapid spread on Twitter of an unsubstantiated claim (one, in this instance, that is in conflict with information from Trump’s own Justice Department) is not an aberration. It’s part of a cycle that represents social media platforms working as intended, showing users the things they are most likely to share and click.
When you ask experts about ways to limit the reach of racism and conspiracy theories on platforms such as Twitter, they’ll tell you to watch how it’s amplified: Sharing a meme to condemn it is still a share. Retweeting a racist tweet to shame its writer still gives the tweet more eyeballs. Even though many journalists and media organizations have gotten better at realizing that trending hashtags are often more representative of the weaponization of attention rather than a reflection of popular opinion, trending hashtags are still an effective tactic for courting news coverage of fringe ideas — even if that coverage is intended to debunk it.
Trump in particular short-circuits the usual advice. When Trump tweets about #ClintonBodyCount, it becomes news. And the conspiracy fringe has long known exactly how to get their tweets in front of the president.
Two weeks ago, when Trump retweeted an account supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory, The Post interviewed experts on the spread of false and extreme ideas through the president’s account. Becca Lewis, a research affiliate at Data & Society who studies far-right political subcultures online, argued that Trump has “turned his Twitter account into a powerful propaganda tool for some of these far-right movements.”
“Whether he knows it or not, they’re aware of it,” she said. “The best thing they can hope for is a Trump retweet.”
Twitter in particular, as the platform of choice for many national journalists as well as Trump, has become the perfect vehicle for conspiracy theories, misinformation and racist screeds to find massive audiences, as messages grow from a few viral tweets, to a trending topic, to news coverage, to a tweet from the president’s popular account. The rapid spread of #ClintonBodyCount indicates that things aren’t really getting any better.
The hashtag references a long-running conspiracy theory accusing the Clintons of being involved in the “suspicious” deaths of a wide range of people. It has been around for decades, despite its many claims not holding up to the most cursory of fact checks. The conspiracy theory was the driving force behind the rapid spread of false rumors about Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich’s death in 2016, and is also loosely connected to the mythology of QAnon — the conspiracy theory that hinges on anonymous posts claiming that, among other things, Trump is about to have the Clintons arrested."
The dangerous cycle that keeps conspiracy theories in the news — and Trump’s tweets
"Conspiracy theories aren’t fueled by facts; they are fueled by attention. On Saturday, a baseless conspiracy theory about the death of Jeffrey Epstein gorged itself on a feast of the stuff, as a viral hashtag spammed by believers trended on Twitter. In less than a day, a viral tweet from a conservative Internet personality promoting that hashtag — #ClintonBodyCount — was retweeted by the president.
This rapid spread on Twitter of an unsubstantiated claim (one, in this instance, that is in conflict with information from Trump’s own Justice Department) is not an aberration. It’s part of a cycle that represents social media platforms working as intended, showing users the things they are most likely to share and click.
When you ask experts about ways to limit the reach of racism and conspiracy theories on platforms such as Twitter, they’ll tell you to watch how it’s amplified: Sharing a meme to condemn it is still a share. Retweeting a racist tweet to shame its writer still gives the tweet more eyeballs. Even though many journalists and media organizations have gotten better at realizing that trending hashtags are often more representative of the weaponization of attention rather than a reflection of popular opinion, trending hashtags are still an effective tactic for courting news coverage of fringe ideas — even if that coverage is intended to debunk it.
Trump in particular short-circuits the usual advice. When Trump tweets about #ClintonBodyCount, it becomes news. And the conspiracy fringe has long known exactly how to get their tweets in front of the president.
Two weeks ago, when Trump retweeted an account supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory, The Post interviewed experts on the spread of false and extreme ideas through the president’s account. Becca Lewis, a research affiliate at Data & Society who studies far-right political subcultures online, argued that Trump has “turned his Twitter account into a powerful propaganda tool for some of these far-right movements.”
“Whether he knows it or not, they’re aware of it,” she said. “The best thing they can hope for is a Trump retweet.”
Twitter in particular, as the platform of choice for many national journalists as well as Trump, has become the perfect vehicle for conspiracy theories, misinformation and racist screeds to find massive audiences, as messages grow from a few viral tweets, to a trending topic, to news coverage, to a tweet from the president’s popular account. The rapid spread of #ClintonBodyCount indicates that things aren’t really getting any better.
The hashtag references a long-running conspiracy theory accusing the Clintons of being involved in the “suspicious” deaths of a wide range of people. It has been around for decades, despite its many claims not holding up to the most cursory of fact checks. The conspiracy theory was the driving force behind the rapid spread of false rumors about Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich’s death in 2016, and is also loosely connected to the mythology of QAnon — the conspiracy theory that hinges on anonymous posts claiming that, among other things, Trump is about to have the Clintons arrested."
