By Ricky Castillo
In a time of internet hoaxes, fake news, and biased media, where can we find actual information that isn’t manipulated or told from a biased perspective? Media platforms, news sources, politicians and misinformation have reached a level of proximity that has forced many to reevaluate their power and truth. In 2020, former president Donald Trump used Twitter as a platform to spread his own beliefs and empower extreme right wing groups. He suggested over Twitter that there would be inevitable bias coming from the use of mail-in ballots, implications that Twitter confirmed was misinformation. More recently, in an attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election, a mob of supporters participated in an insurrection influenced by the words of then president, Donald Trump. These people were branded as terrorists and insurrectionists but was Trump all to blame? What exactly pushed these groups over the edge? How did their strong beliefs turn into acts of violence?
By feeding us content and ads targeted to each user’s preferences, social media and news sources rely on artificial intelligence to reinforce these preferences. By eliminating posts and opinions that run counter to our presumed or expressed beliefs and likes, we enter into a bubble that is free of any beliefs that contradict or conflict our own. Politicians and news sources have pushed their targeted messaging on us, and in turn have entrenched us even more in our own beliefs. Donald Trump, Fox News, CNN and social media platforms like Facebook are partially, if not wholly, responsible for what led to an attack on the capitol. The heavy influence of conspiracy theories on the opinions of real people led to an insurrection.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez assigned partial blame to Facebook for the riots and indicated that Congress’ response should focus on holding Big Tech accountable rather than ramping up domestic surveillance. “He is part of this problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook bear partial responsibility for Wednesday’s events, period.” Ocasio-Cortez went on to argue that Facebook was “trying to do as much damage control as possible, but they knew. Not only did they know but they allowed it.” Technology experts have said that a growing amount of evidence indicates at least some of the planning for the riots took place on Facebook.
“They hated [President Trump] so much, they checked their objectivity,” said Megyn Kelly, who believes networks like CNN are responsible for the Capitol riot because they failed to cover Trump fairly and the public ‘lost trust’ in their coverage. Megyn Kelly is of the independent party and is a former host for both Fox News and NBC, networks with opposite political views. The outlet has openly described Trump and his behavior as racist, sexist and misogynistic and their views made some lose trust. Overall, news outlets like CNN and Fox News just couldn’t check their own personal feelings about former President Donald Trump when reporting on him.
Parler, an American alt-tech microblogging and social networking service, is also partially to blame for the outsources of false and biased information. It has a significant user base of Donald Trump supporters, conservatives, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing extremists. Posts on the service often contain far-right content, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories such as QAnon. The platform has rapidly became a haven for anti-Semites and neo-Nazis, including the shooter of the 2018 mass murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Many Parler executives and users echo that what happened at the capitol could have been staged and people of the left party could have been planted. Specific users all contribute this belief to a post that depicts a photographer above a rioter trying to enter the chambers. One users expresses, “Antifa/BLM infiltration of the citadel gives the Liberal media a narravice claiming pro-Trump supporters were to blame. #Staged.”
No one will take full accountability for the violence that partook at the capitol and there isn’t really one platform or person that can take all the blame for what fueled the riot. “We are seeing significant volumes of rhetoric online,” Daniel Jones, president of Advance Democracy, told USA TODAY. “And we’re seeing this rhetoric – fueled by President Trump’s voter fraud claims – across all social media platforms.” The president has been accused of inciting protests and has been widely criticized for his response to the riots, which resulted in the deaths of multiple people. Each news outlet and politician has expressed a range of views on who is responsible and who should take accountability.Words have the capability to empower people, with very strong opinions, to enact violence against anyone or anything.
But where can you find the least biased news source? Associated Press is ranked number one for the least bias as a news outlet containing only 20 percent of bias. The reality is there is no real way to get rid of bias completely but it is critical to look at both sides of an extreme in order to come to your own educated conclusion.
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