pn864. Our very own "Hellspace of Toxicity" -- Sanjann Hattotuwa

Sanjann Hattotuwa, researcher

Daily Covid cases --  Wed, 3,298, 179 in hospital. Thurs. 6137, 205 in hospital, 2 Intensive Care, Friday 12,021, 237 in hospital, 5 deaths, Sat. 13,606, 263 in hospital, 5 in IC. Sun. 14,941, 305 in hospital, 5 in IC,  death. Mon. 14,633, 344 in hospital, 5 IC. Tues.  19,566,  373 in hospital, 5 IC.Wed. 22,152, 405 in hospital, 10 IC.  Unvaccinated 4 times more likely be hospitalised than those vaccinated. 

Once upon a time, not too long ago,  our news and information came from newspapers, radio and TV. We replied with "letters to the editor."  

Today, many —and perhaps most— people get and exchange views and much or even most of their news and information via their cellphones from digital platforms such as  Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram which, unfortunately, are all fertile grounds for misinformation.    

But the most worrying media platform is Telegram. 

Te Pūnaha Matatini researcher Sanjann Hattotuwa calls it a “hell space of toxicity in Aotearoa, and globally”. It is “fundamentally different” because it welcomes many who have been turfed off the more familiar platforms but also because it doesn’t deploy an algorithm – a device by which certain types of content can either be elevated, but also buried, according to its design. It includes the ultra-rightwing, conspiracy-propagating Counterspin that has played a big part in recruitment and support for the protesters at Parliament. 

Six months ago In September it had 40,000 members and followers. Growth has been exponential. It now has 320,000 and counting. 

The sometimes festive images of the protest outside the Beehive are “fundamentally different to what is promoted, projected and engaged with online”, Hattotuwa says. “What has been usurped online is democratic debate and dialogue on the question of mandates, [replaced] with something that denigrates and destroys and, I can’t stress this enough, aimed at the total evisceration of democracy.”

The biggest surge he witnessed was February 6, the day the convoy modelled on the Canadian template set out. For the first time, video engagement for misinformation channels was greater than that for mainstream media channels. On February 10, when police made more than 100 arrests on the lawns at parliament, something similar happened. This time, misinformation outlets had outperformed the mainstream media on Facebook’s stablemate Instagram.  The “vocabulary of QAnon” was being shared, with everyday users “sucked in by producers who are really quite harmful but delivering livestreams which are really quite compelling”.

Alarmingly, the commentary by the original convoy channels has been attracting much less attention than the more extreme voices. “The most extreme are getting higher engagement and higher growth,” he says. The more extreme the comment, the more engagement it gained. 

For Hattotuwa, the lack of any substantive political response to this burgeoning threat is greatly disappointing. After the New Lynn terrorist attack last year, “the country was very very quick in a month or so to revise counterterrorism laws”, he says. This time, “I haven’t seen anything that speaks to what I believe is necessary investments in social cohesion.

However small on a national scale the protest may be, however benign and genuine so many of those who have pitched up in Wellington may be, the nature of so much of the vigorous communications that lie beneath are truly shocking. The exchanges, says Hattotuwa, are “so horrific that I don’t think most people would recognise their country”.

 The trajectory, says Hattotuwa, is chilling, and there is a real risk that it might get worse, feeding into the 2023 election. “The degree to which things have gone awry,” he says, pausing and taking a deep breath, “if this erosion continues exponentially, we are looking at a very different electoral landscape 18 months down the line.” And yet the mentality in his adopted country seems still to be one of she’ll be right. “I am so worried,” says Hattotuwa. “Because nothing that I am looking at suggests that she will be right.”

-- This posting consists mainly of extracted paragraphs from the original article. My thanks, once again, to The Spinoff.  ACW

Related 

■ https://asiapacificreport.nz/2022/02/23/fears-that-nz-parliament-protest-turning-into-political-free-for-all/

■ In a new book cited by the NZ Listener this week, Stolen Focus: Why you can't pay attention and how to think deeply again, author Johann Hari systematically deals with all the distractions that prevent us from thinking deeply. High on his list are the "pings and paranoias" of social media. Danish professor Sune Lehmann likens it to drinking from a fire hose. "What we are sacrificing," he says,  "is depth in all sorts of dimensions."  Hari says "there never seems to be enough stillness —enough cool, clear space —to stop and think."