Conspiracy theories and misinformation aboutQAnon,COVID-19and2020 election fraudtook adeadly turn in 2021.
As bad as things were last year, experts worry it’ll get worse in 2022.
One reason it could get worse is that the federal governments andtechcompanies aren’t getting ahead of the problem.
There is good news.
This can be fixed, but it’ll take some effort.
This leaves believers feeling alienated and dissatisfied with how their lives ended up.
If these hardships aren’t addressed, many will continue to go further down the rabbit hole.
Others could end up martyrs for what they believe to be a just cause.
That, however, might not be enough.
Experts have repeatedly pointed to social media as being a driving force in the spread of misinformation.
Twittercracked down on misinformation accountsthroughout 2021 and has taken action against the accounts of politicians such asRep.
Marjorie Taylor Greenfor spreading vaccine misinformation.
She has since beenbanned from the platform.
The social media company also instituted a new reporting option ontweets spreading misinformation about health and politics.
Twitter says it’s “committed to improving the health and integrity of the public conversation.”
YouTube stepped up its misinformation policies in 2020 and 2021 by banning COVID vaccine misinformation andanti-vax misinformation.
The company says it’s looking to keep improving its systems to weed out misinformation.
TikTokbegan dealing with misinformation about theelectionsandCOVID vaccinesin 2020.
This resulted in hundreds of thousands ofvideos being deleted from the platformin 2021.
The company also instituted awarning prompt to help stop the spread of flagged videos.
Social media companies have implemented other tools to help out individuals with misinformation that experts agree has worked.
This includeslabeling misinformationandfact-checking posts.
Another useful action is to simply slow down the spread of certain misinformation content soon after it’s posted.
Along with social media companies, Rothschild also points to payment platforms as having a role in spreading misinformation.
What’s in store for 2022?
Since the announcement, however, there was little talk from Trump about his social media web connection.
Those who wish to reserve a username will have tomake a donation to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
It also helps to take stock of your emotions when a certain social media post shows up.
Some content is designed to outrage people, especially when it comes from dubious sources.
