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+25 +1
TikTok videos pushing QAnon, COVID vaccine conspiracies surging despite crackdown, report says
TikTok videos promoting QAnon and anti-vaccine conspiracies are surging in popularity despite a crackdown by the popular social media app, according to a new report shared exclusively with USA TODAY.
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High court nixes Alex Jones' appeal in Newtown shooting case
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was fighting a Connecticut court sanction in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
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Does HBO’s QAnon Documentary Reveal Who Q Is?
Assessing the latest evidence in a Trump-era mystery.
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Study suggests one in three Swiss entertains Covid conspiracy theories
Coronavirus conspiracy theories have gained traction with around a third of people who responded to an academic survey in Switzerland and Germany.
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Making sense of conspiracy theorists as the world gets more bizarre
It is 20 years since Jon Ronson wrote Them, his eye-popping investigation into conspiracy theorists. Now, in a world awash with tales of paedophile elites and puppet masters, is he any closer to understanding it all?
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+21 +1
Facebook could have stopped 10 billion impressions from "repeat misinformers", but didn't: report
Facebook does not need any more bad publicity. The company is currently being publicly scorned after more than 500 million users had their personal information leaked. It has also been faced with an antitrust suit endorsed by more than 40 states since last year, with reports alleging that CEO Mark Zuckerberg would intimidate potential competitors.
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We need herd immunity against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation
A new study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE revealed over 103 million people globally liked, shared, retweeted or reacted with an emoji to misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines.
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I’ll Take ‘White Supremacist Hand Gestures’ for $1,000
How hundreds of “Jeopardy!” contestants talked themselves into a baseless conspiracy theory — and won’t be talked out of it. It is an ironclad rule of the private Facebook group of past “Jeopardy!” contestants that nobody post about that night’s episode before 11 p.m. Eastern time, to avoid spoiling the show for West Coast viewers.
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How Religion, Education, Race And Media Consumption Shape Conspiracy Theory Beliefs
Religion, education, race and media consumption are strong predictors of conspiracy theory acceptance among Americans, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. The survey of 5,149 adults living across the United States released on Thursday finds a strong correlation between consuming right-wing media sources and accepting conspiracy theories such as QAnon.
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+15 +1
Will Christian America Withstand the Pull of QAnon?
The scandals, jagged-edged judgmentalism and culture war mentality that have enveloped significant parts of American Christendom over the last several years, including the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, have conditioned many of us to expect the worst. Which is why the annual meeting of the convention this week was such a pleasant surprise.
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+15 +1
The rise of inflation conspiracy theories
I watched a “documentary” a few days ago called End of the Road: How Money Became Worthless. One statement in the documentary stuck in my mind.
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DHS concerned about violence tied to Trump reinstatement conspiracy theory
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday sent a notice to local and state authorities regarding recent online activity calling for violence in relation to several 2020 election conspiracies.
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+25 +1
Conspiracy Theories Are More “Entertaining” Than The Truth — And This Helps Explain Why People Believe Them
Almost half the world’s 2.2 billion children are already at “extremely high risk” from the impacts of the climate crisis and pollution, according to a report from Unicef. The UN agency’s head called the situation “unimaginably dire”. Nearly every child around the world was at risk from at least one of these impacts today, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution, the report said. But 1 billion children live in 33 countries facing three or four impacts simultaneously. The countries include India, Nigeria and the Philippines, and much of sub-Saharan Africa.
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+20 +1
Why Facebook won't stop pushing propaganda
Joyce Jones’ Facebook page is almost an archetype of what the social network is supposed to look like: Pictures of her kids, her kids’ friends, her sports teams, her kids’ friends’ sports teams. Videos of her husband’s sermons at New Mount Moriah Baptist Church. Memes celebrating achievement and solidarity, holiday greetings, public health messages. It’s what Mark Zuckerberg extols when he talks about how his company is all about “bringing people together.”
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+13 +1
Inside an Ultra-Right Festival: Guns, a Doomsday Church & Steve Bannon
In the wake of the failed Jan. 6 insurrection, the event’s amalgamation of sovereign citizens and alt-truthers has taken on a new meaning.
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QAnon Followers Want Out, but the Hurdles Are Huge
In a ‘Cosmo’ exclusive report, women on both sides—the former believers and the doctors they’re turning to—show us what it takes to escape.
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QAnon founder may have been identified thanks to machine learning | Engadget
With help from machine learning software, computer scientists may have unmasked the identity of Q, the founder of the QAnon movement..
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How Russian Disinformation Goes From the Kremlin to QAnon to Fox News
In the information era, a lie can make its way around the world and, in short order, make millions of people sympathetic to an unjustifiable war of aggression. False claims that Russia has been targeting sinister U.S.-backed “biolabs” in Ukraine were popularized among conspiratorial American audiences by QAnon believers shortly after Russia launched its invasion in late February. Mainstream Republican voices have since dragged the old Russian propaganda at its roots across the forefront of the U.S. political stage.
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A psychologist explains why people believe in conspiracy theories
In the wake of the US Capitol riot and the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories are running rampant. Whether it’s the idea that the world is being run by Satan-loving paedophiles or that coronavirus is spread by 5G technology, for those of us for whom such claims seem outlandish and ridiculous, it is extremely difficult to understand why anyone would believe them. However, psychology researchers have uncovered a range of explanatory factors, from basic perceptual processes to emotional issues.
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Disney Targeted by QAnon Conspirators Using Meme-Stock Approach
For weeks now, followers of the fringe conspiracy group QAnon have been spinning theories and falsehoods about Walt Disney Co. online, whipping up a frenzy of negative sentiment against one of America’s best-known corporations.
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