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Joshua Lott / Getty The Twitter Files Are a Missed Opportunity
No one really knows what Elon Musk’s company is doing to free speech.
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Shutterstock / The Atlantic Arizona’s ‘Tricky Voting Machines’ Sounds Suspiciously Familiar
In political conspiracy theories, as in television shows, the plot elements are always the same.
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Adam Maida / The Atlantic Elon Musk Is Fighting for Attention, Not Free Speech
The social-media platform isn’t a public square. It’s a gladiatorial arena.
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Adam Maida / The Atlantic; Getty The Ukraine Crisis Briefly Put America’s Culture War in Perspective
When something real happened, Americans found a way to pay attention.
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Getty; The Atlantic It’s Not Misinformation. It’s Amplified Propaganda.
You don’t need fake accounts to spread ampliganda online. Real people will happily do it.
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The Atlantic Institutional Authority Has Vanished. Wikipedia Points to the Answer.
The crowdsourced reference site can teach the CDC how to communicate in an era of rumors and shifting information.
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Adam Maida / The Atlantic / Getty The Anti-Vaccine Influencers Who Are Merely Asking Questions
Institutional experts haven’t adapted to today’s media ecosystem. Other commentators are filling the gap.
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Getty / Adam Maida / The Atlantic The Misinformation Campaign Was Distinctly One-Sided
In 2020, false propaganda about voting came almost exclusively from the right, putting tech companies in a bind.
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Getty / The Atlantic Anti-vaxxers Think This Is Their Moment
Society’s well-being depends on how well public-health officials and average internet users combat misinformation.
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The Atlantic Right-Wing Social Media Finalizes Its Divorce From Reality
Fox News acknowledged Trump’s loss. Facebook and Twitter cracked down on election lies. But true believers can get their misinformation elsewhere.
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Shutterstock / The Atlantic The Right’s Disinformation Machine Is Getting Ready for Trump to Lose
QAnon has become a linchpin of far-right media—and the effort to preemptively delegitimize the election.
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John Phillips / Life Magazine via Getty / … The Supply of Disinformation Will Soon Be Infinite
Disinformation campaigns used to require a lot of human effort, but artificial intelligence will take them to a whole new level.
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The Atlantic Virus Experts Aren’t Getting the Message Out
If the authorities can’t satisfy the public’s desire to know more, others will fill the void with misinformation.
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Max-o-matic For China, the ‘USA Virus’ Is a Geopolitical Ploy
In a new era of tinfoil-hat diplomacy, official sources are legitimizing conspiracy theories from the internet.
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Steve Allen / Getty / The Atlantic The Conspiracies Are Coming From Inside the House
After 2016, Americans are alert to Russian election interference, but domestic influencers are spreading discord on their own.
