"We believe at Parler that it is up to the individual to decide what he or she thinks is the truth." - Amy Peikoff, Chief Policy Officer, Parler
FOMO ON DISINFORMATION • FOMO ON VOTER SUPPRESSION • FOMO ON CONSPIRACY •FOMO ON DISABILITY
Greetings, Dear Readers. And, imminent voters. (T minus 11 days).
This week’s newsletter marks the return of FOMO. Like many of you, I’ve been to (one of the upper circles of) Hell and back.
Who remembers Florida’s Surfside tragedy? Fearing a similar building collapse, the Chief Engineer of New York City ordered me to evacuate my Manhattan apartment within two hours. I woke up on a friend’s fold-out couch on July 1st and didn’t return to my retrofitted tenement until February of this year. The day after I reclaimed my belongings from Manhattan Mini Storage I lay still in an MRI capsule which revealed a medical issue which was potentially life-altering.
Both items have since been sorted to the extent possible and I am now itching to share my thinking on a number of issues which have surfaced – or grown more urgent – over the last year. They tend to be chronically misreported, or just as bad, erased.
This week, FOMO attempts to grasp DISINFORMATION; tracks the greatest threats to EXERCISING OUR FRANCHISE this election cycle; and interrogates our collective bias against DISABILITY in public life. While it feels like we’re currently in The Bad Place, I haven’t given up. Nor should you.
“Fake News”
As a disciple of George Lakoff, I’ve deliberately never used the frame that Trump cemented into the popular imagination, which was part of a successful project to annihilate trust in journalism. That doesn’t mean, however, that we wave the white flag. If anything, there are emerging, robust efforts to identify disinformation and map the ecosystem which sustains and now profits from it.
Disinformation as a discrete topic has been a mainstay of us good government nerds, but seeing it on last week’s front page of the New York Times – albeit below the fold – was disinformation’s coming out party to many.
Searching the Grey Lady’s archives, nearly all Times articles over the past fifty years featuring the word “disinformation” were with regard to Russian intelligence and KGB efforts to sow disarray domestically. Now, it’s increasingly native-born. The Times undertook to forensically chart the journey of “The Big Lie” – emanating last summer on a Truth Social post by one Donald John Trump – and initially reaching a paltry 8,000 users. Through the amplification by at least ten social media sites, it made it onto the screens of more than a million users within 48 hours. So much for de-platforming. With a number of figures associated with Trump or Covid Disinfo having been banned for violating terms of service (they’d prefer to say “censored”) there are a range of destinations if you prefer shitposting, including Rumble, Gettr, BitChute, Telegram, the anti-Semitic Gab, and the soon-to-be Ye-owned Parler.
And, yes, I recognize that I’m writing this on Day One of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Who knows what’s in store for the platform? (I’ve already set up an account on Tribel.)
Since this newsletter concerns itself with intersections, I wanted to look at the consequences of Disinformation. How it is an engine to the uptick in hate speech – frequently a predictor of hate crimes; has led to distrust of public health (see above); bred a class of Disinformation Entrepreneurs; and is buoyed up by advertising.
About that: To coincide with NYC’s annual Advertising Week, the Global Disinformation Index issued a report on Ad Tech and how many of its conference sponsors were supporting the disinformation ecosystem, and in particular, powering anti-LGBTQI hate. Here’s the write-up. It makes a damning case against self-regulation, and offers policy prescriptives. For a 101 on GDI’s Theory of the Case, may I suggest that you read its primer on “Adversarial Narrative”? It is a paradigm-shifting way to look at the efforts of propagandists.
Stopping The Next Alex Jones
Most of humankind celebrated with the news that a jury of his peers found Alex Jones liable for close to a BILLION for defaming the Sandy Hook families over the course of a decade. But what is to prevent him from scooping up anonymous cryptocurrency to bail him up — whilst he feigns insolvency? While I was pondering this question, Zeynep Tufekci was diving into it with concision, suggesting that “regulations should target the incentives for, and the speed with, which lies can be spread, amplified and monetized.” The professor — very much aligned with GDI — opined that policymakers should “target reckless data surveillance online by greatly limiting how much data can be collected, how long it can be retained, what it can be used for and how it can be traded,” thereby hobbling Jones’ present business model. For good measure she suggests an update of the Fairness Doctrine, which I used to believe was pointless, but now that Far Right exists in an impenetrable bubble — it might be a shock to the system to demand they air contrary perspectives. I only wish I had written this takeaway: “The work of civilization is not just discovering and unleashing new and powerful technologies; it is also regulating and shaping them and crafting norms and values through education and awareness that make societies healthier and function better.”
Can Brazil Defeat Political Disinformation?
The drama criss-crossing Brazil’s presidential race seems straight out of Hamilton. Bolsonaro has been repeatedly tagged as a pedophile (apparently, “OK Groomer” has gone global) and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s is often referred to a Satan. Per Alexandre de Moraes, a judge on Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), disinformation during this election cycle is 17x higher than previous political contests. Posts of this sort were taken down, and now Moraes has been unilaterally given the power to force the hands of social media platforms if they aren’t fully complying. As a jurist who has been a thorn on Bolsonaro’s side, Bolsonaro’s campaign has cried foul. The ‘Tropical Trump’ has also threatened to replace these judges should he be re-elected. But he isn’t alone. For very different reasons, many civil libertarians are anxious that such sweeping powers might be abused. This momentous vote is this coming Sunday.
Stay tuned.
FAFO
While voting shenanigans for this fall’s midterms are unfolding in real time - think Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada – a bad faith scheme of Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkma, launched across the Midwest ahead of the 2020 election, finally had its day in court.
Using a voice broadcasting service provider – a reminder that disinformation can be low-tech, too – the duo targeted African-American households with a message designed to suppress vote by mail, warning that as a result of casting your ballot, arrests could be made for outstanding warrants or debts. They also claimed that the Centers for Disease Control might access voter information as part of a mandatory vaccination program. This past Tuesday they pled guilty in a Cleveland, Ohio court to felony telecomm fraud, facing up to one-year in jail. In 2020, the FCC unanimously fined them $5.1 million for the robocalls. A case in Michigan is still pending.
So. In the face of this chaos, we can we do? Remain engaged.
•Justin Horowitz is currently tracking the recruitment efforts by electoral deniers and QAnon’ers for Media Matters for America. Part of his research looks at how right-wing media is amplifying these efforts. You can search across 16 organizations - including the Republican National Committee — which isn’t even pretending to hide its commitment to upending free and fair elections.
•Call out voter intimidation. Protect Democracy is tracking examples of it and is sharing updates via signup.
•Unless you have to absentee vote, making voting a thing -- and gather up those friends who are likely to skip the ritual. Find your polling place here.
“This is absolutely painful to watch”
If you will indulge me, I wanted to briefly include a focus on coverage of John Fetterman’s campaign and what it teaches us.
This past Tuesday night’s debate between Dr. Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman, was, as they say, “cooked.” Or rather, the wish fulfilment of both the party of “Family Values” and preening, privileged Beltway pundits who have yet to live through a medical catastrophe.
NBC’s Dasha Burns - who just aged out of her twenties, bless her heart, breathlessly tweeted that she had just interviewed Fetterman, characterizing it as “unlike any political interview I’ve ever done. Unlike any race I’ve ever covered.”
Then she added that the stroke surviver seemed not to understand the small talk which she often uses to put her subjects at ease. I happened to catch this in real time and was incensed. Part of our progress as a society is acknowledging and providing folks with accommodations - in this case a captioning device to provide live transcription. The legendary Kara Swisher – who’s like Terry Gross, but with balls, instantly spoke up.
Swisher pushed out her podcast hours later, deliberately without cleaning up Fetterman’s speech whatsoever. What’s remarkable is that you had two stroke survivors in dialogue - Swisher’s was 11 years earlier - comparing notes and getting on with it. Swisher did not go soft on the candidate. Unlike Burns — they also discussed policy.
For those who haven’t been following the Disability Movement — which is our Civil Rights Movement for the 21st century — and wonder “what’s all this talk about ‘Able-ism”: I recommend this roundup by Buzzfeed’s David Mack of disability activists grounding their anger. Especially for journalists whose first reaction was to defend Burns rather than consider other points of view.
Keeping with the theme of disinformation and how it has affected our culture and our lives, a sample of podcasts, documentaries, and books:
Audio: We Were Three.
A three-part podcast produced by the folks who gave us Serial in partnership with the New York Times. Three is a heartbreaking tale of how the father and brother of a tightly-knit family fatally succumbed to lies about Covid-19… and left their daughter/sister orphaned.
Streaming: Shadowland.
This six-part docuseries by Joe Berlinger brings the reporting on conspiracy of The Atlantic to life. It is respectful of the many people who have lost their bearings. Let me be transparent: Do not watch this in proximity of listening to We Were Three. It nearly broke me. But, it is worthwhile. Some of these Q-fied Americans will come out of their stupor after they’ve lost everything and they realize that they’ve gained nothing.
While next week’s FOMO will, of course, focus on the final hours ahead of Election Day, I will be prominently covering ABORTION.
Ignore dissembling Republicans. It’s going to be seismic. Ahead of that newsletter, please set aside time to review VoteProChoice’s comprehensive voter guide -- with recommendations from 150 organizations for offices local and national. There will be a test.
OK, ya’ll: Enjoy your Rainbow 🌈 Fentanyl. Stay Safe!