I tracked the spread of a bogus claim about the candidate. Here’s what I learned.
But if you look at how fake news really works—how ideas and memes take root and spread across the digital universe—it’s becoming clear that these measures won’t be enough.As the 2020 campaign gets underway, manipulated, disruptive and misleading content has already emerged. Researchers, for instance, havea group of Twitter accounts that have begun coordinating negative messaging—laced with racist and sexist stereotypes—directed at various Democrats.
For a window into how this works—and what we’re missing—consider one particularly widespread meme: an attack on Kamala Harris preposterously comparing the senator, who is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, to Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who made false claims about being black.
From there, the idea hopped to Pinterest, Twitter, 4chan’s “politically correct” message board, as well as Gab and Voat, two “alternative” platforms that emerged as hubs of toxic information after the 2016 election.
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