Charlie Kirk The mastery of social media was key to his rise as a conservative political influence. So which degree His death And it should not be surprising that the aftermath unfolds in these forums.
In today’s microcosm of life, social media is the place and main tool for Americans to handle last week’s murders in Utah His supporters use it Police people who feel they are not offering proper respect. Investigators are investigating the time Tyler Robinson’s Kirk was accused of killing Kirk.
As Kirk’s story, on the other side of the world The Americans Who Went Wondered, Nepal got caught up From the convulsions of violence that erupted when the government tried to ban social media platforms.
All this forces us to control what we see and understand through the technologies, algorithms that have changed our lives, and to take a closer look at how much time we spend on them affects the views of the world.
Cox has emerged as a powerful spokesman for social media
Republican Spencer Cox, governor of Utah, believes that “cancer” is not a strong enough term to describe social media. “The most powerful companies in world history have found ways to hack our brains, get our brains hooked, and hate each other,” Cox told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Hawaii Democrat Sen. Brian Schatz, via social media, has urged Americans to “attract themselves, read books, exercise, do whiskey, walk their dogs, make pasta, fish, soak this pickle of Argo in your brain, or ruin your soul.”
Chilling Video Of Kirk’s September 10th assassination, he quickly overwhelmed sites like X, Tiktok and YouTube, and companies are still trying to contain that spread. Confrontational material and conspiracy theories are pushed into a social media feed to do exactly what they’re designing – Keep people on a platform longer period.
“I think we’re here,” said Laura Edelson, a Northeast University professor and expert in social media algorithms. “Our country is digitally mediated. Where we interact with other people, how we interact with the wider society, it’s more and more through feed algorithms. This is the latest in the long-term way that society has been transformed by media technology.”
The divisive content and the spread of Kirk’s death video may not have been a goal, but Edelson said it was a direct result of decisions to maximize profits and reduce content moderation.
“I think people will come to their mustaches, with the exception of troll farms in Russia and more and more Chinese troll farms,” she said.
X Owner Elon Musk I posted on his website last week, and the discourse could be negative, but “it’s still good. President Donald Trump created it. His own social platformwas asked before being asked about Cox’s comments on Tuesday. Trip to the UK. He said social media can create “deep, cancerous dark holes,” but that wasn’t all bad.
“Well, that’s not cancer in every way,” he told reporters. “In some ways, that’s great.”
Conservative media star Ben ShapiroThose who viewed Kirk as a friend praised Kirk for going to various places and talking to people who opposed him.
“The way social media works is disaster areas, completely disaster areas,” Shapiro said in an interview with Bali Weiss With a free prespodcast. “It definitely makes the world a worse place. That’s not a call for censorship.”
How people behave on social media is a bipartisan issue, Shapiro said. The broadest ones are those who use the third person plural. “They” are doing something to “we,” he said. When many people discussed Kirk’s death, The motive of the archer It is not revealed and there is no evidence that his actions are anything but himself.
Collect inflammatory posts from both sides
The liberal Meidastouch Media Company has collected inflammatory social posts by conservatives, especially those who suggest they are in “war.” Meanwhile, some conservatives are combing social media for posts they consider to be negative about Kirk. Libs on the Tiktok site urged Washington State school districts to be refunded as they refused to lower the flag to half of their staff.
Florida GOP Rep. Randyfine asked people to point out negative Kirk posts in people who work for government, where they receive public funds, and where they are approved by the government. For example, a teacher or lawyer. “Do these monsters want a fight?” he writes to X: “Congratulations, they got it.”
Washington Post Columnist, Karen Attiawrote that she was fired for a series of blueski posts that expressed almost sympathy for Kirk. However, she wrote to Substack that she “is not the same as those who support violence against them because of white men who support violence,” and that she “is not carrying out excessive grief.” A post spokesperson declined to comment.
Much of what people use to talk about politics — algorithm-driven social media sites and cable television — is designed to separate Americans, said James Tarico, a democratic state legislator in Texas, recently announced a bid for the US Senate. “Because it’s the only way to continue this American experiment.
Among the most persistent examples of those departments are: Lies and false reports About elections that have spread over the years through online social channels. they have It undermines faith One of the country’s bedrock facilities contributed to the anger he led. Trump supporters In A violent storm The US Capitol building on January 6th, 2021.
Whether meaningful changes are possible remains an open question. Nepal’s unrest indicated the danger of government involvement. Social media sites were shut down, suggesting that users were a way to protest and stop criticism of the government. Police fired fire at one demonstration, killing 19 people.
Convincing social media sites to change their algorithms is also a difficult battle. They distract them, and people are spending as much time as possible on them. Jasmine Enberg, social media analyst at Emarketer, said there is little incentive for them to change unless advertisers run away for fear of being associated with violent posts.
She said young people in particular are aware of the dangers of spending time on social media.
But do you want to turn off the phone? The “reality of the situation” stated, “there is a limit to the amount of things that can be restricted.”
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Associated Press writers Barbara Autotie in San Francisco, Darlene Superyu in Washington, and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to the report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment on the AP. Follow him in http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
