1 / I'd been thinking a lot lately about the smaller, more practically dangerous effects of unchecked disinformation on platforms with exponential sharing and community growth.

Then I saw a woman in a QAnon Facebook group earnestly ask for help with her tinnitus.

2 / The woman in the QAnon group asking for help with her tinnitus received these suggestions:

It’s your wifi. Go barefoot.

Mind control labs are just shifting their frequency.

“Your DNA is getting upgraded.”

It’s a common symptom of your mind awakening. Read my ebook.

3 / Can we put the cat back in the bag here? Probably not.

Facebook created a directory of vulnerable people who can commiserate about the unseen powers keeping them down, and for grifters to isolate and take advantage of them.

4 / When Facebook prioritized groups, their recommendations algorithm drove these people down exponentially darker rabbit holes.

5 / Now a lot of these Facebook groups are private. The bad medical advice, the miracle cures sold to cure diseases — they're all closed off to anyone who could help.

The calls to arms for those who feel like life will never get better — they're only visible to people who agree.

6 / It’s all simmering just beneath the surface.

It’s not really fixable anymore. It's not even visible anymore. For Facebook, that was the point.