By: Jack Bilyeu
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.- The small town of Marshall, Arkansas garnered national attention this week after its Chief of Police Lang Holland was fired due to inflammatory comments in the wake of the Presidential election. The comments, which promoted acts of violence against “Marxist Democrats,” were posted on a website called Parler, which touts itself as an alternative to Twitter- without the censorship.
“When you see these high-level officials and people that are in their orbit making these claims on these types of extreme websites, that’s disturbing. We would hope that these officials would try to be as politically neutral and objective as possible,” said University of Arkansas political science Professor Karen Sebold.
In a press release on November 7th, Mayor Kevin Elliott condemned Holland’s posts and announced that the former Chief had resigned effective immediately. The press release was updated on November 9th to reflect the fact that the investigation is now in the hands of Arkansas State Police.
Websites like Parler are nothing new. Free-speech focused alternatives to popular websites have been popping up for years. Sebold said that many of the people on these sites congregate there because they already agree with many of the opinions popular on the forums.
“Largely, the people that gravitate towards those sites tend to be pretty entrenched in their partisanship and ideology and not being on that site is probably not going to change that much,” Sebold said, “You see the ability to unite over these extreme views and egg each other on, gin each other up.” She stressed the importance of free speech, but also warned of the harm that can come from spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories.
From 2016 to 2017, the popular 4Chan image board and its free-speech focused offshoot 8chan became ground zero for the QAnon conspiracy theory. Those who follow the conspiracy call themselves “QAnons” and believe that a Trump Administration insider codenamed “Q” leaks sensitive information involving underground political pedophile rings, election interference and everything in between. The movement was amplified on social media by journalists like Alex Jones and Sean Hannity.
“It’s not that these people are evil or mean to commit evil acts. They’re misinformed and they think they’re doing exactly what’s right: standing up for America,” Sebold said. Likewise, websites like 4Chan, 8Chan and Parler don’t allow these activities to go on because they are evil. Instead, they allow it because it drives more traffic and makes the companies more money.
Sebold said the best way to avoid misinformation online is to verify everything you may be skeptical about- the truth might be just a Google search away.
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