Wandering stories, or urban legends as they are called in North America, also wander electronically. In the same way as orally spread wandering stories, stories also go viral through social media platforms on the Internet and through click-and-share. Social media platforms have emerged as key sources of new. Half of U.S. adults report that they occasionally get news from these sites. Since there is no fact check in social media platforms, wandering stories spread regardless if they are true or false.
Circulation of wandering stories through social media on the Internet is even more effective than the word of mouth from one person to the other. NBC News wrote, on 10 August 2020, about an internal investigation done by Facebook. As stated by NBC, the ten most widespread Q-anon conspiracy theories had more than a million members and more than 3 million followers. The speed online stories spread is shown in chapter 9, chapter 10 and chapter 12.
The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten refers to American research suggests the algorithms of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms contributed to the Q-anon conspiracy theories being spread in open and closed groups and among followers and in newsfeeds.
These groups and their followers create a “community” among previously marginalised followers. They function to a large extent as demarcated political arenas, so-called echo chambers. When others believe the same, it is easy to be strengthened in one’s opinion. They are never presented with counterarguments as they would have been if there had been a discussion in an open political arena.
Those who also believe that the news media only produce “fake news” also get little orientation towards reality through media reports.
“White slave trade”
Bengt Klintberg describes a terrifying story about young women being kidnapped via a trapdoor in the floor of a fitting room in a clothing store in Paris, France. They were then abducted and sold by representatives of the white slave trade. Klintberg heard this wandering story in Djurholm’s school, north of Stockholm.
Klintberg has found the that same wandering legend has prevailed in France for several decades. In the 60s, there were such rumours in several French cities, including Orleans. In 1969, 6 Jewish shopkeepers there fell victim to such rumours. It did not help that the city’s police chief publicly announced that no girls were missing. Worried parents, nevertheless, lined up outside the shops. As described by Klintberg, this caused such a burden for Jewish shop owners in Orleans that several of them chose to move.
As shown in chapter 5 in this blog, this wandering story was published by the Nazi party controlled weekly “Der Stürmer” in nine versions between 1927 and 1938.