5 things to read (and 5 people to follow) on misinformation after a mass shooting
Yesterday, a white male gunman killed at least 26 people at a church in Texas.
Today, America woke up to a flood of misinformation — on Twitter and even mainstream media.
Whenever a mass shooting or terrorist attack occurs, misinformation follows.
It’s not a surprise that users on Reddit and 4chan are able to game search engine and trending topic results. Politicians and journalists should always be prepared to second-guess and fact-check early reports of victims and perpetrators.
To help understand how that happens, here are five stories to read and people to follow:
READ: Here Is The Misinformation Going Around About The Texas Church Shooting 📝
Quick roundup of the rumors out there yesterday and today by Buzzfeed News — start here to make sure you’re aware of the rumors being spread.
FOLLOW: @CraigSilverman, Craig Silverman, Media Editor at Buzzfeed News, focuses on misinformation.
READ: Study finds fringe communities on Reddit and 4chan have high influence on flow of alternative news to Twitter 📝
How does a fake news article circulated on 4chan end up as the top search result on Twitter? Phys.org article.
FOLLOW: @emilianoucl , Emiliano De Cristofaro, security researcher, University College London.
Bonus: the original paper, The Web Centipede: Understanding How Web Communities Influence Each Other Through the Lens of Mainstream and Alternative News Sources 📊
READ: Information Wars: A Window into the Alternative Media Ecosystem 📊
A very thorough study of the current state of alternative and “fake” media by Kate Starbird.
FOLLOW: @KateStarbird, Kate Starbird, researcher, crisis informatics and online rumors at University of Washington.
READ Kek, Cucks, and God Emperor Trump: A Measurement Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web 📊
The “fringe” Internet is fringe until it starts being a major influencer in national politics. If nothing — read for the title. By Hine, Gabriel Emile, et al.
FOLLOW: @gianluca_string, Gianluca Stringhini, researcher at University College London, studies 4chan, “how bad people act on the Internet.”
READ: The Virginia Shooter Wanted Fame. Let’s Not Give It to Him. 📝
Article is from 2005, following the Virginia Tech shooting — but evergreen food for thought from Zeynep Tufekci.
FOLLOW: @zeynep, Zeynep Tufekci, researcher, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, Harvard, writes for New York Times.