Donald Trump has 54.2 million followers on Twitter. Kim Kardashian, 58.7 million. And Cristiano Ronaldo, 74.3 million. The president, a reality television star, and a musician are just a handful of some of the most influential people in the world and owners of some of the most powerful social media presences in the world.
To put that power and influence into perspective, Michael Cernovich, an alt-right conspiracy theorist, currently has access to some 450,000 followers on Twitter. Small time compared to Bieber or Ronaldo, but still a large enough following to be considered a sizeable metropolis. In the lead-up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Cernovich gained a bulk of his following while promoting a conspiracy theory in which a pedophilia ring was being run out of pizzeria basement in Washington, D.C.. He firmly believed that leaked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager contained “coded” messages about human trafficking and its correlation to several high-ranking members of the Democratic Party.
As a result, in December 2016, a 28-year-old man from South Carolina traveled to the pizzeria to “investigate” the theory and ultimately fired 3 shots from an AR-15 rifle into the restaurant. No one was injured, but the death threats the staff received continued well after the incident.
The point is that with the right amount of susceptible followers, social media is a highly influential (and free) tool available to anyone with an internet connection and a couple minutes of downtime. Sometimes, this breeds trouble.
According to the Pew Research Center, as of August 2017, two-thirds of Americans admit to receiving at least some of their news on social media sites, and 78 percent of those under the age of 50 almost entirely as such. Sites like Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube have seen no less than 11 percent increases over the past year alone, and despite the fear, in the right hands, social networking can certainly be used for good. PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, consistently ranks third among the most media-savvy users on the internet.
According to Medium, an online catalog, during Super Bowl 50 in 2016—one of the most competitive days of the year for brand awareness—PETA managed to be trending while promoting their anti-cruelty campaigns and petitions.
Most individuals looking for reputable sources would likely pick a CNN, or a New York Times, or Fox or any other of the dozens of established corporations available to the general public.
Today, it seems to be more important to be trending than it does to be right, and since the rise of social networking sites, popularity and “fake news” have replaced trustworthy rhetoric and honest reporting in exchange for retweets.
However tempting or convenient it may be to gather information for the coming midterm elections on Twitter or Facebook, it may be wise to start looking for that information elsewhere.
