Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture » Nieman Journalism Lab - Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard

In October 2021, I made this TikTok:

When the effect is retired of proportionality to the existent menace offered…this net researcher says you whitethorn beryllium successful the mediate of a motivation panic. #MakeADogsDay #myfinALLYmoment #mediastudies #internetstudies #socialmedia #professor #professorsoftiktok #academia #research #researchtok #phd #tenuretrack

♬ that is simply a scarecrow – ☕️ Mochadrift

Around that time, the conversations astir “challenges” connected TikTok were abundant. These are viral actions oregon creation moves made with the volition that others volition enactment and enactment their ain rotation connected the content. At the clip I made this TikTok, the challenges seemed to beryllium retired of control: “Slap a Teacher,” “Devious Licks,” “Hellmaxxing.”. The press, peculiarly section quality organizations, ran chaotic with articles connected these challenges.

I made that TikTok calling retired the reactions to these challenges arsenic motivation panics due to the fact that thing seemed amiss. If you’re unfamiliar, a motivation panic is erstwhile the effect to thing is retired of each proportionality to the existent threat. I’ve been an net researcher for astir a decade, and I wasn’t uncovering immoderate grounds that immoderate of these challenges really existed. There was plentifulness of grounds of radical talking astir the challenges, oregon showing their alleged aftermaths — but nary grounds of the existent challenge.

Turns out, I was right.

This past March, The Washington Post learned that Facebook had hired a Republican consulting steadfast to orchestrate these fake challenges successful a smear run against TikTok. Meta, Facebook’s genitor institution that besides owns Instagram, has struggled to clasp younger users. The strategy seemed to beryllium that by smearing its competitor, Meta could marque TikTok arsenic unsafe and get younger users disconnected it, hopefully luring them backmost to Meta-owned apps.

The property got played. And it took hardly six months earlier it happened again.

In September 2022, news reports crossed the United States reported connected an allegedly caller TikTok trend: people cooking chickenhearted successful the cold-and-flu medicine NyQuil. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a statement informing radical not to bash this, and property sum exploded.

But determination was ne'er immoderate conclusive grounds this inclination was really happening. The net encyclopedia Know Your Meme dates the earliest notation of alleged “Sleepy Chicken” backmost to 2017, erstwhile it was archetypal mentioned arsenic a gag connected the forum 4chan.

There’s a past here. Go backmost to the infamous Tide Pod debacle of 2018. An net situation of eating Tide Pod laundry detergent was allegedly spreading similar wildfire. In reality, according to Consumer Reports, the bulk of calls to poison power centers were for children nether 5 and aged individuals with dementia. While isolated incidents did occur, there was precise small grounds of wide Tide Pod ingestion owed to this challenge. Like “Slap a Teacher” and “Sleepy Chicken,” determination were a plethora of videos talking astir individuals doing it — but not a batch of video evidence.

The “Sleepy Chicken debacle” and Facebook’s TikTok smear run amusement america that, not lone person media makers figured retired however to manipulate the property connected topics pertaining to net culture, but the property keeps allowing itself to beryllium manipulated. Many successful the property and institutions similar the FDA person done much harm than these expected challenges do. Sleepy Chicken was an obscurity, relegated to the periphery of net forums and culture. It was not adjacent a “challenge,” conscionable an obscure forum station meant to shock. It was lone erstwhile the FDA issued its informing — and the property covered it successful earnest — that the copycat quality of the “challenge” began and the harmful signifier was fixed attention.

Online, attraction is the astir captious commodity we person to give. Content lives and dies by the fig of radical who prosecute with it. The property needs to halt giving attraction distant for free. While determination are immoderate internet reporters who bash thorough and excellent coverage, galore person a batch to larn to debar being manipulated.

Social media platforms aren’t conscionable spaces for enactment and contented consumption. They are spaces wherever battles for powerfulness play out, whether that’s a level trying to undermine their competitors (like Meta) oregon isolated individuals utilizing daze tactics to physique clout. Unless radical successful the property (and ancillary media systems, similar the property offices of the FDA) clasp net experts, they’ll proceed to bash much harm than immoderate net situation ever could.

Jessica Maddox is an adjunct prof of integer media exertion astatine the University of Alabama.