Harmeen Kaur
Short analyzed article about the baseless claims about Harris crash spread by mysterious
website
The most recent case study in disinformation arrived in the form of a car crash that
involved one high-profile figure of a 13-year-old that was left paralyzed in the public eye,
where unsubstantiated claims were quickly disseminated through a mysterious website.
In fact, these unsubstantiated claims provided various indications of foul play or
negligence at the scene of an incident. This incident presents some of the aspects that are
really dangerous in the light of disinformation when malicious actors seize upon a high-
profile event to manipulate narrative and till date it has not been proven if such an incident
actually, took place.
Key Points:
Mystery Website: Barely anybody knew anything about this website's background, yet it
immediately started spreading rumors and conspiracy theories linked with the crash
stating that kamala Harris, who was the democratic presidential nominee, had been
involved in a hit and run incident, leaving a teenage girl paralyzed. It was also stated that
The narrator had to go through multiple surgeries. These ranged from a wide variety of
sabotage suggestions that were not based on any fact to most of which were debunked by
experts and authorities stating that the X-rays that were to prove the accident, were fake
and how they were ai generated while the other half of the X-ray belonged to a 58-year-old
patient from China. Since the website was anonymous, the readers had much difficulty
looking into the credibility of the information provided, thus adding to the confusion.
Information Dissemination
But the claims got highly amplified through social media platforms. In these information-
sharing times, the lack of gatekeeping has allowed the dissemination of disinformation to
go a long way before even official sources could manage to intervene. Highly referred to is
this as the "echo chamber" effect, where the basic reinforcing mechanism is mere
repetition. Indeed, this reinforces the misinformation provided to them by constant
exposure to it.
Psychological Consequences on Public Perception:
At the same time, public perception of the spread of media with false information has a
very serious effect on the psychological level. A lot of people continued to doubt the
official version even after refutation of claims. All that leads to distrust in the legitimate
news source and institutions, and finally weakens the trust of society in factual reporting.
Media Literacy:
This is a case which has brought into sharp relief the critical need for media literacy in such
an information environment. That is, it means readers must learn to identify sources they
can trust, question some of the validity of certain claims, and recognize tactics certain
people with agendas use when trying to dis-inform them and how without the use of any
high-tech software, a lie can still be formed and believe to be true .
