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Conspiracy theories are a powerful force in the United States. Conspiracy theories undermined public health amid a global pandemic, undermined trust in the democratic process, and contributed to the violent attack on the US Capitol in January 2021.
These conspiracy theories are part of a dangerous misinformation crisis that has been building in the US for years
American politics has long tended to be paranoid, and belief in conspiracy theories is nothing new, but the outlandish conspiracy theories that spawned on social media are now regularly embraced by those in power. It’s getting a reaction.
Recently, one of America’s most popular conspiracy theorists faced consequences in court for his involvement in spreading viral lies. Right-wing radio host Alex Jones and his company Infowars have told jurors in Connecticut and Texas about 15 relatives of victims who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting 10 years ago. was ordered to pay $100 million in damages. Jones had falsely claimed that the shooting was a hoax.
As a professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut, I have been researching misinformation about the December 14, 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. I believe this is the first major conspiracy theory in the modern social media age, and I believe we can trace our current predicament to the aftermath of the tragedy.
The Sandy Hook massacre 10 years ago, even though conspiracy theories were aimed at the grieving families of young students and school workers killed in the massacre, quickly went mainstream on social media and were criticized by various powers. I have shown that I can get support.
People who claimed the tragedy was a hoax appeared in Newtown and harassed those connected to the shooting. It provided an early example of how misinformation spread on social media can harm the real world.
The new age of social media and distrust
The role of social media in spreading misinformation has been well documented in recent years. The year of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting was the first year that more than half of American adults used social media.
It also showed the modern low public trust in the media. Since then, Gallup’s annual surveys have shown even lower trust in the media in 2016, 2021 and 2022.
These two concurrent trends continued to breed misinformation and quickly pushed peripheral suspicion about Sandy Hook into the US mainstream. Speculation that the shooting was a false flag — an attack made to look as if it had been committed by another person — soon began circulating on Twitter and other social media sites. Jones, who voiced suspicion about the shooting the day it happened, was one of the far-right and marginal voices that amplified these false allegations.
Jones was recently found guilty of default in a defamation lawsuit brought by Sandy Hook’s family.
As my research shows, errors in breaking news stories about the shooting, including conflicting information about the gun used and the identity of the shooter, were pieced together into YouTube videos and blogged as evidence of the conspiracy. Detectives collaborated with a Facebook group promoting the shooting as a hoax and luring new users down the rabbit hole.
Various establishment figures, including Republican Martha Dean, who was nominated for Connecticut Attorney General in 2010, soon gave credence to doubts about the tragedy.
Six months later, as gun control bills stalled in Congress, a university poll found that one in four thought the truth about Sandy Hook was being covered up, advancing the political agenda. . Many others said they weren’t sure. The results were so incredible that some media outlets questioned the poll’s accuracy.
Since then, many other conspiracy theories have followed a similar trajectory on social media. A bizarre QAnon conspiracy movement that falsely claimed that top Democrats were part of a Satanic pedophile ring is being driven by candidates for public office. US Congressman Taylor Greene has also previously expressed suspicions about Sandy Hook and other mass shootings.
But way back in 2012, the spread of outlandish conspiracy theories from social media to the mainstream was a relatively new phenomenon that showed what was to come.
new kind of conspiracy
Sandy Hook also marked a tipping point in the nature of conspiracy theories and their targets. Prior to Sandy Hook, popular American conspiracy theories generally blamed shadow elites and forces within government. For example, many 9/11 “truthists” believed the government was behind the terrorist attacks, but generally neglected the families of the victims.
Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists have accused family members of those killed, shooting survivors, religious leaders, neighbors and first responders of being part of a government conspiracy.
Newtown parents were accused of faking their children’s deaths, or their very existence. did. Many other false allegations swirled online, including one in which the murders were linked to his cult of child sex.
This shift in conspiracy targets from veiled governments and elite figures to everyday people marked a shift in the trajectory of conspiracy theories in America.
Since Sandy Hook, survivors of many other high-profile shootings and attacks, including the Boston Marathon bombing and the Charlottesville car attack, have compounded their trauma by denying their tragedy. rice field.
And the perverse idea of ​​a politically-connected pedophile ring became a key tenet of two subsequent conspiracy theories: Pizzagate and QAnon.
Harassment and death threats, such as those faced by Sandy Hook’s family, have also become a common result of conspiracy theories. The Pizzagate conspiracy theory Jones encouraged listeners to investigate targeted Washington pizza parlor owners and employees who were allegedly part of a pedophile group that included politicians. In 2016, a man drove hundreds of miles to investigate and fired an assault rifle at a restaurant.
Some skeptical of the COVID-19 pandemic have harassed frontline health workers. Local election officials across the country have been threatened and accused of being part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election.
The legacy of the Sandy Hook shooting is the legacy of misinformation and the beginning of a crisis that will haunt the United States for years to come.
But as recent court rulings show, conspiracy theorists who target individuals and companies with lies can also face consequences in court.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Please read the original article.
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