| Hello, it's Margi in San Francisco. A post from a notorious account should be the least of the internet's disinformation worries, says one researcher. But first… Today's must-reads: • An alleged breach in China exposes the dangers of Beijing's vast collection of data
• The US is pushing the Netherlands to ban ASML from selling technology that's crucial for making chips to China
• Startup Zapper is weighing the notion of raising funds at a nearly $1 billion value When a new missive from the mysterious internet poster known only as Q surfaced late last month, it arrived in a very different world than the one that existed nearly two years ago, when Q's last post appeared. The message, which said "Are you ready to serve your country again?" came as many Americans were following congressional hearings probing the events around the storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some of the participants in that insurrection were adherents of the QAnon conspiracy, a fringe movement that spreads the false belief that global liberal elites are members of a child sex abuse ring. The political movement, which closely tracks messages from the anonymous Q account, has given rise to a cottage industry that includes merchandise available on Amazon, YouTube channels and tacit encouragement from a range of US politicians. Members have also promoted false claims that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election through fraud, leading to the question of whether Q's return might result in even more internet disinformation. But Q isn't really the issue anymore, said Joseph E. Uscinski, an associate professor at the University of Miami who's studied QAnon for years. Reached by phone recently, Uscinski said that Q is a symptom of a larger issue, not the cause. With or without the Q account, he said, Americans should be worried about the prevalence of conspiracy theories in modern life. "Most of the QAnon believers were not at Jan. 6," Uscinski said. "Most of the people who believe there was rampant voter fraud were not at Jan. 6 either." One parallel is the wrongful arrests and convictions stemming from the Satanic Panic in the 1980s, a period in which US police took action against parents and teachers over claims of child sex abuse that later turned out to be fiction. Now, conspiracists are conflating gender and sexuality with pedophilia to fan similar flames, said Uscinski. Disney is the latest target of bizarre allegations, the outlines of which echoed early faux scandals, the Satanic Panic and the Pizzagate theory. The rumors stemmed from its plans to create LGBTQ characters along with its condemnation of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law. "It feels as if we are getting into another Satanic Panic," Uscinski said. Meanwhile, researchers are questioning whether the latest Q post stems from Ron Watkins, the administrator of 8Kun, Q's last home. Watkins has repeatedly denied that he was Q after suspicions were raised by the HBO documentary Into The Storm. Academic research also suggests he took over Q's account at a time when 8Kun's viewership was dwindling. We might never know for sure. What is sure is that whatever the influence of this latest iteration of Q, it won't be the only conspiracy theory we hear about before the next presidential election. —Margi Murphy Susan Athey, a Stanford University professor and former chief economist at Microsoft, is joining the Justice Department as its top antitrust economist. Athey is an expert on the economics of internet platforms, especially search engines and online advertising. While she joins the Justice Department as it prepares for fights against Google and Apple, Athey is likely to be recused on those cases. 1Life Healthcare, parent of One Medical clinics, is considering its options after attracting takeover interest. Core Scientific, a top crypto miner, sold the bulk of its Bitcoin holdings in June as a steep drop in digital assets squeezed finances throughout the industry. Members of the European Parliament are calling for an investigation into unregistered lobbying from Big Tech. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment