Does suppressing online conspiracy theorists work? Experts weigh in; The Guardian, July 30, 2020

Poppy Noor, The Guardian; Does suppressing online conspiracy theorists work? Experts weigh in

"Russell Muirhead, who co-authored the book A Lot of People Are Saying, which digs into how misinformation spreads online, says that social media work to validate and legitimize conspiracy theorizing and misinformation.

“On a platform like Twitter, and to some extent on Facebook and YouTube, repetition comes to substitute validation. If enough people like the tweet, or watch the video, or like the video on YouTube, it confers a kind of legitimacy,” he says.

He gives the example of a common refrain of Donald Trump’s to exemplify this: Trump will say “I don’t know if it’s true but a lot of people are saying it” – as if people simply repeating misinformation means it must have some truth to it.

“That’s very threatening to our ability to understand the world and to democratic politics. Because anything people retweet enough times seems true – regardless of whether or not it is,” he says."

Gatekeeping Is Not The Same As Censorship; Forbes, August 22, 2019

Kalev Leetaru, Forbes; Gatekeeping Is Not The Same As Censorship

"With each new effort by social media companies to reign in the deluge of digital falsehoods, accusations pour forth that such efforts represent censorship. In reality, the two represent very different concepts, with censorship referring to the repression of ideas in alignment to political, social or moral views, while gatekeeping in its broadest sense refers to efforts to maintain the quality of information published in a given venue. A censor prohibits discussion of topics with which they disagree. A gatekeeper is viewpoint-neutral, ensuring only that the information has been thoroughly vetted and verified...

In the end, both social platforms and society at large must recognize the clear distinction between the dangers of censorship and the benefits of gatekeeping."