How Influencers Have Become Their Followers’ News Source
There are lots of influencers and celebrities on social media today. Some have over a million followers just on Instagram. They express their opinions on their social media and share news articles. Sometimes these articles are very biased or not factual at all, but because they have millions of followers they are trusted. Influencers and celebrities with a mass following have a large impact on their followers.
“Amitabh Bachchan’s tweet from March falsely claiming that houseflies spread the coronavirus was followed by a spike in searches for “housefly” and “मक्खी” (housefly in Hindi) in India, according to Google Trends data.”
This article has a great example of a celebrity influencing their followers. Even if these followers did not take Amitabh Bachchan at his word, there was still an increase in attention to the matter.
This tweet posted by MIA is one of a few she has tweeted out suggesting that symptoms of 5G and the coronavirus are very similar. This image she tweeted is of a burning 5G tower being set up close to where she lives.
Actor Woody Harrelson also posted some false claims about 5G onto his Instagram account and got over 190,000 views before it was deleted.
This tweet from Kim Kardashian is just another example of spreading information about the coronavirus. The tweet contains a screenshot of a book by psychic Sylvia Browne which warned about a new disease affecting the world in 2020.
Brother Nature shared this tweet regarding how to prevent yourself from contracting the coronavirus. He later deleted the tweet.
All of these celebrities and influencers posted some form of misinformation. Even though most of them ended up being deleted, they were still seen by millions of people and can still be seen from saved screenshots. So remember do not always believe everything your favorite celebrity or influencer posts about, no matter how many followers they have.