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A conversation with Charlie Warzel about his frenzied search for stories on the internet.
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In the hours and days after the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Even before knowing any information about the suspect Social media is also full of speculations and opinions. When the identity of Luigi Mangione was revealed to the public on Monday The digital trail he leaves behind—and the difficulty of tying him to a certain ideology or movement—only intensifies the cycle of reaction. I spoke with my colleague Charlie Warzel. which talks about technology About playing online in the past week And why does social media reward the impulse to create meaning even in ambiguous situations?
Laura Kelley: What makes this job ideal for rapid response online? This was before we even had a lot of information.
Charlie Worzel: It is shocking to watch the video of an anonymous person shooting someone with a gun on the street in midtown Manhattan. It’s even more shocking when you discover that the victim has powers. Shockingly, the suspect later escaped and was not immediately caught. It defies these types of expectations, basically there’s an information vacuum during the whole hunt. All we knew for a few days was that someone had been shot in cold blood. The gunman escaped. And the victims are people whose industry is condemned by many Americans. When something surprising happens People want it to mean something. As I write today The internet abhors vacuums.
dream: Why are so many people online trying to quickly create a story about a given news event? Is that just human impulse making the online ecosystem worse?
Charlie: The old idea of the internet was to democratize access to information. And that seems ideal. It is seen as a tool for creating sensation. What we’ve learned and seen since then—the dark side of all of this—is that the internet is a place where we try to make meaning. Even though it doesn’t actually exist yet. on social media People began gathering all the evidence to support various claims. Before we know the facts The most dangerous time for truth is the moment after something has happened. When there isn’t much information People can take advantage of such gaps. That’s not new. And it’s not just about the internet.
But on social media After a truly shocking event You can see that the machine is moving. The fact that many people such as journalists, vigilante investigators, politicians, and those who open online stores to sell products They all jumped in. There is a vicious cycle here. People post take time Then people posted about the take.
People are trying to make this work consistent with their understanding of the world. Many people are jumping to: The social structure is deteriorating.or This is the beginning of a sustainable movement.– Social media users often try to form very strict political groups. So they said: Is the suspect a leftist? Is he a conspiracy theorist? Is he a political activist?
dream: How does the discourse change once a suspect has been identified and announced?
Charlie: At least from what we know so far. This suspect doesn’t seem easy to put into a box. In some ways, partisan acts of violence are easy to parse along ideological lines: when the man who sent pipe bomb In the mail it appeared that there were vans covered in MAGA bumper stickers, for example.
There is a history of people dissecting the digital trails of people who commit acts of violence. To understand what might motivate them to do so. This suspect defied many expectations. He appears to be praising the Unabomber’s statement on what appears to be his Goodreads account, but he also seems interested in Peter. Quite a lot of Thiel as well. and at the same time He also doesn’t have a very impartial online presence. So they don’t put them into equal camps. People online hate that kind of nuance and uncertainty.
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Today’s news
- President Joe Biden has announced that he will Travel about 1,500 sentences For those released from prison and placed on home confinement under pandemic-era laws, And he will pardon 39 inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes.
- FBI No spies were set up. in the crowd during the Jan. 6 riots, according to the Justice Department watchdog.
- There is an American man who has disappeared. It was reported to have been discovered in Syria. After being released from prison where he had been confined for about half a year.
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