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Period: to
5 Years of Disruption
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Unite the Right Rally
As a response to the removal of Confederate iconography and artifacts in southern states, white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, VA, and counter-protestors met them with messages of anti fascism. Then-president Donald Trump commented that there was violence - but also "fine people" - on both sides, communicating to Americans that the president was not going to decry racism. All information leading up to the riot was communicated through social media. -
Brexit
While the UK didn't officially withdraw from the EU until January 2020, the years leading up to the withdrawal proved how social media can make issues between foreign countries important even to people who normally aren't interested in foreign affairs. Anyone who had a social media account saw how passionate the opinions on both sides of the Brexit argument were, and formed opinions themselves. -
Black Lives Matter Protests
As a response to the death of George Floyd, citizens across the country braved the risks of superspreader events during a global pandemic to protest police brutality against black people. -
Vaccine and Mask Misinformation Leads to Social Media Platforms Updating News Sharing Policies
As the CDC starts approving vaccines for select groups of people and continues to encourage people to wear masks, misinformation about the safety of vaccines and effectiveness of masks spreads like wildfire. User complaints prompts Twitter to add captions to tweets that are spreading misinformation qualifying the tweet as being inaccurate, and YouTube starts removing videos altogether that spread misinformation. -
r/wallstreetbets Initiate a Short Squeeze on GameStop
Members of r/wallstreetbets manipulate the stock market by rapidly increasing the value of GameStop stocks, shedding light on the issues surrounding the stock market, trading, and how members of higher socioeconomic classes actively work toward keeping people in lower socioeconomic classes in poverty.