Newsweek cites a X post by right-wing activist and columnist Matt Walsh posted to X: “Kamala Harris got her start in politics by sleeping with Willie Brown. She became Vice President because Biden needed a non-white female on the ticket. Now she likely becomes the Democratic nominee for president because the guy at the top of the ticket has dementia. She’s made a career out of begging for hand outs from powerful men. A thoroughly unimpressive human being.” The post was shared 12,5 million times.
Only 42 % of young people turned up to vote in the presidential election as reported by The Guardian. The results also showed an emerging sex gap in the young generation. The Trump campaign managed to sway the young. 56% of «generation Z» men, between the ages of 18 and 29, voted for Trump while only 40% of their female peers did so. How were the young men swayed?
Many of us suffered social isolation during the Corona period. Those of us fortunate enough to have a job, sat at home alone working remote. Many people less fortunate lost their jobs and income.
The years as a teenager and a young adult are important for socialising. You learn more grown up social skills, make friends, sweethearts and lovers. In the corona period, young people were not allowed to go to youth clubs or other leisure activities, school, university or job where you could socialise easily.
Instead, young people have been constrained to living more of their lives online from their bedroom. Young people to a larger degree get their information about the world, including political questions, from social media platforms where there is no fact checking. And where should you learn to socialise with the other sex and young people in general if you do not meet other young people in real life ?
According to a survey from the PRRI institute, Gen Z adults consistently say social media platforms sets them apart from older generations in democracy. They say social media platforms help them to connect with larger issues around the globe and develop political identities separate from the influence of their parents. Others say social media platforms also presents challenges by spreading disinformation.
Misogyny
Britannica defines misogyny as, hatred or prejudice against women, typically exhibited by men.
The lack of natural socialisation, especially between the sexes, might be what have led a large part of young men into misogenic views. The term toxic masculinity refers to harmful expectations on men to act aggressive, emotionless, and dominant. It discourages vulnerability.
A survey from Kings College states that 37 % of men 16-29 say «toxic masculinity» is an unhelpful term, while 19 % of young women feel this way.
One of five men in the age of 16-29 who have heard about the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, say they have a positive view of him. This is three times the share of women in the same age group (7 %).
In a survey about politics from November 18. 2024, PEW Research Senter found that 37 % Americans had regularely get news from influencers on social media.
Who are the influencers ?
A clear majority of news influencers (63 %) are men, and most (77 %) have no affiliation or background from a news organisation.
Most of the influencers are on the mainstream Big Tech platforms. 85 % are found on the Elon Musk owned X platform, 50 % on Instagram, 32 % on Facebook, 27 % on Threads and 27 % on TikTok.
A clear majority of users of some of the media platforms, like Donald Trump owned Truth Social and Elon Musk owned X, get news there.
Falsified stories spread quickly
A study from MIT shows that false news travel faster than true stories on Twitter. For instance, false news stories are 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than true stories are. It takes true stories about six times as long to reach 1,500 people as it does for false stories to reach the same number of people.
Disinformation about election irregularities and Haitians eating cats have been widespread widely on X, TikTok and Facebook prior of the presidential election in 2024.
Still, Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg after a CEO’s dinner at Trumps Mar-a-lago said that his company «overdid a bit» on moderation. Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said as reported by The Guardian that Zuckerberg wants to play an “active role” in the administration’s tech policy decisions and wanted to participate in “the debate that any administration needs to have about maintaining America’s leadership in the technological sphere,” particularly on artificial intelligence.
I have sent numerous complaints to Meta over misinformation, racism, misogyny and political slander posted by the Trump campaign. The times Meta answered, the answered with an automated reply saying that the complaint had been turned down. Most of the time the company did not reply.