Facebook Groups How to via Questiosn Again
For years, rumors have circulated around the internet about the existence, and use, of paid protestors. In the wake of anti-police brutality demonstrations, detractors accept claimed that the protestors involved in the global Blackness Lives Thing movement are hired hands and, in June 2020, these claims spread similar wildfire on social media due in office to the website ProtestJobs.com. While folks on Facebook went wild with this "discovery," it'south abundantly clear that ProtestJobs.com is a satirical site.
A quick glance at the services the site offers — for $99 you tin can mock-request an "EZ-Riot," which, among other things, includes "5-25 masked rioters guaranteed to cause havoc and confusion" — establishes that satire in seconds. Non to mention, it boasts a very explicit disclaimer — "Real: 100,000+ Americans are dead. Simulated: This website." Jean le Roux, a inquiry associate and fact checker, told BuzzFeed News that "It's a very fine line betwixt disinformation and an actual, established literary device." That is, in a world where fact is oftentimes decried as imitation news, a satirical website is now beingness held up past protest opponents as "proof" of the illegitimacy of said protests. Information technology'south all merely very, very dystopian — possibly even more than so than George Orwell imagined.
The Dangers of Social Media Echo Chambers
In 2018, BuzzFeed News published an article titled "How Facebook Groups Are Beingness Exploited To Spread Misinformation, Plan Harassment, And Radicalize People" — and the title says it all. In the lead up to the 2022 Presidential Ballot, Facebook and other social media sites that don't regulate the spread of misinformation came under heavy attack.
In essence, these sorts of sites non simply get in difficult for users to differentiate between fake news and facts, but Facebook Groups, much like sometime-schoolhouse internet forums, help conspiracies spread like wildfire and, in some cases, radicalize believers. Nosotros all remember the "Plandemic" conspiracy theorists — people who called the COVID-19 pandemic a hoax and spread misinformation about the incredibly serious (and incredibly real) public wellness threat.
Co-ordinate to BuzzFeed'south investigation, "[W]hile Facebook groups may offering a positive experience for millions of people around the world, they accept likewise become a global honeypot of spam, faux news, conspiracies, health misinformation, harassment, hacking, trolling, scams and other threats to users." In putting an emphasis on Groups, Facebook is substantially reinforcing the agreeing bubble mentality, keeping users locked in social media echo chambers, which, at their very worst, are "fueled by a torrent of fake news and extremism" (via Monday Note).
To make matters more than puzzling, Crowds on Demand, an American publicity firm, has made waves past hiring actors to "staff" events. While the firm was founded around the idea of giving folks the "celebrity experience" — say, if you desire a paparazzi-style crowd at the airport to make you expect more important — the site now claims to go beyond just PR stunts, suggesting customers use the firm to bolster numbers at "protests, rallies…[and] political events."
This, of class, feeds into the questionable practice of "astroturfing," in which sponsors or organizations mask their intent past making it seem as though their message has originated from grassroots efforts. "[The commercialization of the process of hiring crowds] merely contributes to the air of unreality that exists in this mean solar day and historic period with essentially not existence able to believe your own optics or ears," California-based political consultant Garry South told the Los Angeles Times in 2018. "I don't recall it'due south particularly healthy. But it probably inevitably was going to come to this."
"No one can pay for someone's lived experience." — Ana Maria Archila
Unfortunately, this kind of misinformation isn't cordoned off in a night corner of the net. In 2018, Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the U.Southward. Supreme Court was one of the most contentious in history, compelling many of his detractors to protestation. Trump tweeted well-nigh the protestors, digging his heels into the conspiracy theory that the protestors had been paid by wealthy liberal donors, including George Soros.
"The paid D.C. protestors are now set up to REALLY protest because they haven't gotten their checks," Trump tweeted. "[I]n other words, they weren't paid! Screamers in Congress, and exterior, were far likewise obvious — less professional person than anticipated by those paying (or not paying) the bills!" Just, every bit reported by Political leader, Ana Maria Archila, a self-identified sexual assault survivor who confronted a Republican senator, wrote in a argument that "No one can pay for someone's lived experiences… The pain, the trauma, and the rage that I expressed when I spoke with Senator Jeff Chip in an elevator were my own, and I held it for more than than thirty years to protect the people I beloved from it."
In other words, the former President's unfounded claims were yet another example of misinformation, and, given his immense platform, his endeavour to discredit Americans who were concerned about Kavanaugh's past and lack of accountability was all the more dangerous. Normalizing conspiracy theories and spreading misinformation on a national phase only emboldens others to do and so and clouds the truth from Americans who just want the who, what, where, when and why of current events.
All of this to say, while firms like Crowds on Need do exist to swell oversupply sizes, jumping to conclusions every time there is a protestation or rally isn't helpful. While the rise of social media has made information technology easy to spread information and jump on trends, we should all do our part to be as diligent equally possible — to confront the fact check before tumbling downwards the rabbit hole.
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Source: https://www.ask.com/culture/paid-protestors-investigated?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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