Oxfords Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has found that social media has replaced TV news and news websites as the top way Americans get their news. This includes right wing influencers like Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump. One-fifth of Americans said they had come over “news and commentary” from Joe Rogan in the week after the inauguration. Thereof a disproportionate number of young men.
Influencers who have supported Trump campaigns have been able to spread their stories to millions of people:
- Elon Musk has more than 190 million followers on X.
- Rogan had more than 62 million followers: 14 million on Spotify, 17 million on Youtube, more than 19 million followers on Instagram, and more than 12,6 million on X.
- Tucker Carlson has 2,6 million followers on Youtube, 13,3 million on X and 3,9 million on Instagram. The Independent reports that “Tucker Carlson Show” is more popular than Rogan on Spotify.
- Andrew Tate has more than 10 million followers on X.
- In addition to these Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, Dan Bongino, Jack Posobiec, Roger Stone, Benny Johnson, Candace Owens, Steven Crowder, The Hodgetwins, Paul Joseph Watson and many more have supported the Trump campaign. Roger Stone has claimed he made the “stop the steal” conspiracy theory in 2016, 4 years before the Capitol siege.
2/3 of influencers do not fact check before they share stories. This means that they can spread the most dramatic stories, and very fast. The study showed that influencers “have difficulty with determining the best criteria for assessing the credibility of information they find online. 42% of respondents said they used “the number of ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ a post had received” on social media as the main indicator. 21% were happy to share content with their audiences if it had been shared with them “by friends they trusted”, and 19% said they relied “on the reputation” of the original author or publisher of content.”
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.
Who are the influencers ?
In a survey about politics from November 18. 2024, PEW Research Senter found that 37 % Americans had regularly get news from influencers on social media. A clear majority of news influencers (63 %) are men, and most (77 %) have no background from a news organisation.
Many influencers also promote right wing content and politicians and deliver a biased selection of stories. The influencers basically make money on number of their public. Fact check is not an incentive because:
- Reality checks often kills a story, because you simply discover there was nothing in it.
- Dramatic stories spread faster-fact check can take out the drama.
- Algorithms favour speed, engagement and conflict—truth slows them down.
- Misinformation spreads faster = more views and money.
- Brands care about reach, not accuracy—unless it backfires.
- Audiences rarely punish lies—fans often ignore/dismiss corrections.
- Fact-checking takes effort—most prioritize content volume.
- Exception: Credibility-focused niches (news, science) face backlash for errors, but they are the minority.
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 Donald Trump owned Truth Social and Elon Musk owned X, get their news there.
False stories spread more 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.
Misogyny
The rise of Incel ideology must be understood against the backdrop of social media’s role as a primary social forum for young people. The “manosphere” is a network of communities based on the pseudoscientific theory claiming the 80/20 rule, that 80 percent of women are attracted to 20 % of men. The Incel ideology is strictly hierarchical and based on physical appearance.
The male ideal in the Incel ideology is the “Chad”, which is not a deeply developed character, but the stereotypical archetype as opposed to the “Incel”. Incel means “involuntary celibate”. The “Chad” has masculine physical traits, and is highly confident, selfish, unemphatic and potentially aggressive.
The notion that women in general are more attracted to aggressive men is false. It is simply not true that only the most aggressive men can be loved. For a fleeting moment, the harsh glare of an aggressive person’s interest can feel like a flattering and self-reinforcing spotlight. Still, researchers who have investigated the question has claimed that while some women are allured by “bad boys”, most women are attracted to kind men in the long term.
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 mysogenistic views. Among young men, a lack of experience with love and sex—a common consequence of their age—can be a contributing factor to the prevalence of misogynistic 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 %).
The incel ideology is defined by four core beliefs:
- The Blackpill: A fatalistic belief that life and attraction are determined solely by genetics, making their situation hopeless.
- A Rigid Hierarchy: They see a social pyramid with “Chads” (alpha males) at the top, “Stacys” (desirable women) seeking them, and themselves (“Incels”) at the bottom.
- Misogyny & Victimhood: They harbour a deep-seated hatred for women, blaming them as shallow and cruel for their perceived rejection, casting themselves as the ultimate victims.
- A Sense of Entitlement: Underlying their self-pity is a powerful belief that they are owed sex and female attention.
These memes and racist or sexually derogatory “dark emojis” are frequently used in online bullying of individuals or groups of people.