Great talk at @AAASmeetings by @katestarbird about participatory disinformation and how quickly Trump-fan grievances on social media amplify conspiracy theories aaas.confex.com/aaas/2022/meet…
"some of us are trying to understand how to put a wrench in this system and stop the madness"
Platform policies around health and election misinformation have made a difference -- suspensions on Twitter took out accounts spreading misinformation and linked to astroturfing and QAnon (didn't get it all, though)
"I've come to realize my talk is pretty depressing."
"No one solution is going to work ... but we have to chip away. There's a role for research, industry, government ... we're at a critical junction and we need to collectively work to address it." (I would add journalism to that list)
If someone you love is falling into conspiracy theories, approach them with empathy. "It's not an individual failing, it's a systematic failing. People are being actively manipulated."
When people get deplatformed from Twitter and move to Parler, there's a risk of further radicalization -- but the energy subsides a bit because there's nobody for them to fight with (!) and nobody more to recruit
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