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Facebook, QAnon and the World’s Slackening Grip on Reality
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Facebook, QAnon and the World’s Slackening Grip on Reality

How Big Tech Got Bigger

Alex Hern
The Guardian, 2020
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9

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  • Eye Opening
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People coped with the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in different ways, but just about everyone spent more time online. Some played video games, but with the help of social media, others got sucked into QAnon’s alternate reality of fear, paranoia and conspiracy. Though Facebook has tried to limit the spread of toxic disinformation, once people are in QAnon’s alternative reality, leaving is hard. The best way to get out of QAnon’s ”rabbit hole” and stay out is for other people to snap you back into the real world. Alex Hern’s article in The Guardian provides much-needed insight into how otherwise sane people can get drawn into conspiracies that are by turns deranged and dangerous.

Take-Aways

  • QAnon began as a straightforward conspiracy theory, then became a “collective delusion.”
  • Facebook and other social media platforms generated a “perfect storm for misinformation.”
  • In 2017, Facebook collaborated with journalists to combat misinformation.

About the Author

Alex Hern is the UK technology editor for The Guardian.

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