Thread by @JYSexton

Social media is wired to profit off irresponsible voices and sharing their posts only makes them more powerful and boosts influence.

Retweeting to make fun of them helps them. If you need to share for informational purposes/debunking, capture the image to starve impressions.

We just lived through the Trump years. Learn from them. We have to be smarter and more responsible in how we use these platforms because they’re wired to create chaos, instability, and spread conspiracy theories.

Engaging only gives these people power and influence.

The rise of Trump was in part made possible because he was so conducive to 1. Social media engagement 2. Media profits and 3. How his cruelty provoked people to share his garbage and express their opposing opinions.

These Right Wing trolls learned this lesson incredibly well.

When a certain dangerous congresswoman posts to provoke outrage, she’s doing it to build impressions and simultaneously make herself an opponent and build her stature off that position.

Do. Not. Feed. This.

Don’t give the impressions or the influence.

If you want to debunk something one of these Right Wing trolls posts, set the record straight, or analyze their tactics, screen capture the post.

Quote tweeting or replying to make fun of them doesn’t do anything but help them. Learn from the recent past. We have to do better.

Same goes for articles that outrage you. Media doesn’t care if you’re retweeting or sharing because you love or hate their pieces. It only incentivizes and ensures they’ll run more of them and go further to provoke.

Recognize the systems at play. You affect them.