Early voting began yesterday in North Carolina, which means we’re almost to Election Day! And in this unpredictable year, things can surely get weirder. This week, CITAPers focused on promoting ways that platforms and journalists can uphold democracy.
QAnon and the age of alternative facts
After Twitter and then Facebook banned QAnon from their platforms, YouTube announced yesterday that they’ll ban any content that targets or harasses individuals based on the conspiracy. As CITAP affiliate Becca Lewis noted, the impact of YouTube’s restriction isn’t yet clear. “By only prohibiting conspiratorial content that specifically targets other individuals or groups, it may leave huge amounts of leeway for QAnon content to continue to thrive.”
This week, Alice Marwick appeared on the Today show to discuss how QAnon has built its following through mainstream channels, playing on concerns about child trafficking to pull new followers in. “Getting involved in something that purports to help children is very appealing to women,” she explained. Platform bans and restrictions will make it harder for new audiences to come across Q adherents through these appeals.
But in a recent piece in the Columbia Journalism Review, Alice and Will Partin spell out just how hard the “superconspiracy” is to counter. As they write:
While QAnon participants can often seem crazy, irrational, or credulous, our research suggests that their collaboration creates a populist expertise that provides (and, crucially, justifies) an alternative to knowledge generated by “mainstream” institutions. Put differently, QAnon does the work of constructing alternative facts. And just as individual pieces of data must be validated in mainstream institutions through processes like peer review and reproducibility, QAnon researchers have found a means of validating their own claims in their interpretation of the world.
Bans and restrictions don’t deconstruct this alternate reality. As Alice described it to Today, “We’re starting to see a real schism in this country between what different people think is true, and that worries me.” “If we can’t even agree on what’s true, how can we agree on anything else?” she elaborated in a follow-up on WRAL.
(For more context on how moral righteousness is leveraged to recruit QAnon followers, check out the Wayfair episode of the podcast You’re Wrong About. And if you’re trying to connect with a QAnon in your own life, “How to talk to a conspiracy theorist” might provide a way in.)
Election coverage and democracy
The media have a critical role to play in upholding democracy this election cycle. On Wednesday, a coalition of more than 60 political communication researchers launched a set of recommendations for media covering the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.
The Election Coverage and Democracy (ECAD) Network offers nonpartisan, evidence-backed guidance in three areas:
Covering the election between now and November 3
What to do if there is a contested election when the result is unclear or a candidate does not concede
What to do if there is civil unrest
Top recommendations include “deny a platform to unfounded claims” “put voters at the center,” “publicize your plans,” and “cover through ‘democracy-worthy’ frame.” The full report is published at mediafordemocracy.org, along with a resource library and a directory of subject-matter experts available for interviews in the weeks ahead. We’ll continue to share resources and examples of great journalism in action as @ECADemocracy on Twitter as well.
The Election Coverage and Democracy (ECAD) network is led by CITAP’s own Daniel Kreiss, alongside Kathleen Searles of Louisiana State University, Michael Wagner of UW-Madison, and David Wilson of the University of Delaware. Deen Freelon and Shannon McGregor are also members of the network and signatories on these recommendations. We’re proud to support this project—and democracy.
Please share these resources widely!
Recent publications and appearances
In response to Twitter’s new restrictions targeting election disinformation, Daniel Kreiss and Mike Ananny released an op-ed in Wired arguing for a time delay on the President’s social media posts, which would help curb disinformation before it has a chance to be amplified.
Post-doctoral fellow Rachel Kuo coauthored a report with 18 Million Rising on how Asian Americans create political change in digital spaces, and appeared on the podcast Self Evident: Asian America’s Stories.
Tressie McMillan Cottom published “Where Platform Capitalism and Racial Capitalism Meet: The Sociology of Race and Racism in the Digital Society” in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.
In letters to Facebook and Twitter about abusive political content, Senator Mark Warner cited research by Daniel Kreiss and Shannon McGregor.
Alice Marwick spoke with the Future Hindsight podcast about building power online.
Shannon McGregor discussed Facebook’s and Twitter’s decision to block a New York Post article based on hacked material with The New York Times.
Jezebel’s history of the “manosphere” cites Alice Marwick and Becca Lewis’s work on men’s rights activism as an entry point to white nationalism and other far-right movements.
Francesca Tripodi talked with Bloomberg about the fraught relationship between YouTube and conservative personality Stephen Crowder’s “ongoing pattern of egregious behavior.”
Bridget Barrett addressed how online political advertising has and hasn’t improved since 2016.
Coming soon
Next week, three CITAP faculty will take part in public events. Join us!
On Tuesday at 12pm ET, Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society is hosting a conversation between two 2020 MacArthur fellows Join to hear Tressie McMillan Cottom and Mary Gray, facilitated by Joan Donovan. RSVP at: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/two-geniuses-walk-zoom
Then on Thursday at 1pm ET, Zeynep is sitting down with the Knight Foundation’s Sam Gill to talk about the future of democracy and the implications of COVID-19 for their #KnightLive series. Register at https://knightfoundation.org/episode-25-The-COVID-19-forecast/
Catch Francesca Tripodi on the Social Science Research’s Council’s 2020 Election Virtual Event Series—she’ll be appearing on Thursday at 5:30PM ET to discuss “Disinformation, Authenticity, and Democratic Participation.” Register at: https://www.brooklynhistory.org/events/virtual-program-disinformation-authenticity-and-democratic-participation/