Disinformation

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Society & Culture, Science

4.4 • 997 Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Laurie Taylor talks to Annie Kelly, a researcher of the Digital Far Right, about the QAnon conspiracy theory and why it has attracted a striking number of female followers, many of whom are mothers. She argues that their rhetoric and slogans have cleverly smuggled legitimate concerns about the welfare of children into a baseless and dangerous set of entirely false claims about the nature of child trafficking. What role have social media sites dominated by women played in the circulation of QAnon theories and how can they be challenged?

Also, Nina Jankowitz, Global Disinformation Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, examines Russia’s role in the spread of disinformation, not only in the USA but also in Eastern and Central Europe. What lessons can be learned from these experiences? She argues that the best types of disinformation are able to amplify and exploit the already existing divisions in society, including racism and inequality in the US context.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.4	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:36.0	This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC and for more details and much, much more about
0:42.2	thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co. UK. Hello, we're accustomed to popular music chronicling the known evils of the contemporary world,
1:02.4	poverty, racism, injustice. But how interesting
1:06.3	to discover Canadian jazz band that has chosen to place a new and escalating
1:11.5	international phenomenon at the heart of an entire album.
1:20.0	The Darcy James Argu Big Band with The Enemy Within, just one of the 13 tracks devoted
1:27.4	to America's current paranoid obsession with conspiracy theories. At this startling jazz album was recorded well before the escalation of the
1:45.8	COVID virus unleashed a whole new wave of conspiracy theories. Take your pick.
1:51.3	Bill Gates was somehow the instigator because back in 2015 he'd
1:56.0	warned that the world was not prepared for the next pandemic or in another version
2:01.3	the virus was spread by the development of 5G technology or it was
2:07.0	engineered in a Chinese laboratory by villainous scientists.
2:22.0	But we begin today by examining an online conspiracy that has a quite different paranoid concern at its
2:24.9	root. The belief that a group of shadow elites known as the cabal is trafficking
	...

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