speech there is no such thing as here speech no such thing there is only free speech. right. is anger here many believe that trump is a victim of electoral fraud gun control is a challenge for incoming joe biden and tackling the many armed groups emerging in the us is an even tougher one put out that has me al jazeera richmond in virginia. this is al jazeera these are the top stories in just over 24 hours president donald trump's term will be over he leaves behind a u.s. capitol under heavy security lockdown ahead of weapons day's inauguration of joe biden alan fisher has more now from washington donald trump will leave the white house he wall head to andrews air force base just outside washington d.c. there his aides have arranged a military sendoff there will be troops to inspect there is the possibility of

a 21 gun salute there is also the distinct possibility of a military fly past then double trouble or send a red carpet which will be lead out especially for him on to air force one and he will fly off it to florida which of course he will remain president until just before midday on wednesday security forces in guatemala are broken up a group of migrants who set up camp at a roadblock thousands of people are fleeing poverty and violence in honduras hoping to reach the u.s. the government is refusing to let them continue with their journey brazil has started a long awaited 1000 vaccine distribution program for people in manassas the gateway to the amazon rain forest thanks a nation's can't come quickly enough the health system there is now on the verge of collapse. flooding in indonesia has killed at least 15 people forced tens of thousands from their homes to it's been raining heavily in south kalimantan province for more than a week rivers have burst their banks submerging villages and towns the italian

prime minister. has been addressing senators as he fights to save his ruling coalition on monday conti one of vote of no confidence in the other chamber of parliament the lower house. several people have been arrested in st petersburg today they've been protesting in support of the kremlin critic collection of al mi the russian opposition politician was arrested at an airport in moscow on sunday it just touched down from germany where he'd spent 5 months recovering after having been poisoned. a thai court has handed a record 43 year jail sentence to a woman for insulting the king the former civil servant was found guilty on $29.00 counts of violating thailand's strict laws against criticizing the moment those are your headlines the news continues after the stream adrian see it from 15 g. i'll see you tomorrow after unprecedented scenes of violence and chaos on capitol hill joe biden and campbell harris will be sworn into office but with

a bitterly obstructive a for the president and a continuing pandemic just how different will the traditional celebrations need to be special coverage of the u.s. presidential inauguration are now to 0. after me ok we'll continue the strain in a is a conspiracy theory that the covered $900.00 vaccine is enough for areas way to microchip people around the world this is not true i repeat this is not true but why do people believe conspiracy theories are a more to do about that i am looking forward to hearing your take by joining in on you tube in the comments section this is the only time i'm ever going to be inviting me to the conspiracy theory it's right there in the comments section i look forward to keeping carter of today's show restart with alex kaplan alex he's a senior research for media matters for america. within the past year we've seen

conspiracy theory spread such as cumin on false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election and the claim that a board of r.'s actually we use the microchip people these are our enemy because june on which group extensive weans authoritarian endemic is inherently violent it lead more people to extremism she went on and they were actually broken spirited theories undermine democracy and both contributed to the storming of the capitol and the microchip experience it's eerie worries me because it's been a lot of traction and could potentially resign people refusing to take the backseat so much to talk about i want to welcome guests and that you can too to than we have spencer we have a mess we have not yet stands out and tell everybody who you are what you do. my name spencer sunshine i have a ph d. in sociology and i work as a monitor of far right movements it's good to have you a mess welcome back to the studio remind everybody he was only. it's great to be

back on the stream my name is or mr any of us and them a professor at u.c.l.a. of the information studies department and i wrote a book about how we restore humanity to technology called beyond the valley recently. nadia. tell of what he. i got as i am not in frasier and that's technologist and her scientist at harvard studying misinformation. since there is a tweet that said not long ago which was sort of like at the top sit at 3 or 4 conspiracy theories in the world if you were going to be number one will be at number one as far as you're concerned i think for the last 100 years the top conspiracy theory has been that there's a jewish couple that controls the world that conspiracy theories worked its way around the world and continues to pop up over and over again. what's to anon for people who are new to keep hearing and then come i understand what that is. q. and on is a kind of

a medic conspiracy theory it takes other conspiracy theories and absorb it into it it holds essentially that there's a cabal of say tatic data files that are in washington d.c. in control of the democratic party mess what makes up a conspiracy theory why would it not be an urban legend an urban myth or just as fake news misinformation what makes it a conspiracy theory. you know as spencer was just saying there have always you know for such a long time there are conspiracy theories have been part of our social fabric i think what's really different that we're witnessing today is how conspiracy theories have become more and more mainstream and have become part of popular and social movements and i think a big reason why is because people have doubts and skepticism about the elite is associated unfortunately about science and technology itself but also our political leaders and our corporate leaders and so on. not you know why wouldn't these just

because the nice. so we talk about conspiracy theories as a one time of false turn or one piece of misinformation landscape and they are distinct and that they attempt to explain or nantes as a secret clocks are powerful people and which stats and apart from other kinds of lies and falsehoods we might see on the internet. i want to play a little bit of an elite audiotape and this is president just before the run off senate elections for georgia talking about some of the things he films has happened i think nobody thinks it's actually happened and where he wants the peasant he's talking to police that they actually have an i don't know i can't tap have a listen. now do you think it's possible that they should read it ballots in palm counting because that's what the rumor is and all know that i don't mean you took out regimes. that don't mean it is really moving fast to get rid of their.

machinery do you know anything about. who's going to lead all right and you and i know the 1000000 is not moved in a machinery out of home county we're about but don't like them but if they move you have them abhay moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts. is your right and i'm sure. what is happening here spencer ammash not s.n.c. you start festival is the golden age of conspiracy theories when the president of the united states carrying them and trying to change the way that a particular state it may well run its elections. well i'm not sure if it's a golden age or not conspiracy theories have come to dominate different societies

and governments at different periods in history i think it's certainly the 1st time in recent history that we've seen conspiracy theories in the united states reach such a high level on how to have such a high platform they've always been around in our country i mean in 2 masonic conspiracy theory started in the seventy's ninety's so they're not a new thing here but what's new is how how central they are and how quickly friends conspiracy theories can move from the margins into the mainstream. it was just going to use it because it's very busy here right now let me let me put this one to you or mast head isham says social media is used by these people to reinforce conspiracy theories education from an early age is needed to develop critical thinking skills so they aren't food where mass. that's absolutely true but i do think that we really need to understand why conspiracy theories and sort of fringe you know groups associated with conspiracy theories have become so much more

mainstream have become so much more popular and not just in the united states but around the world and i think it's because a lot of people feel alienated and left out and you know that idea of place let's ness but social media technologies are an incredible catalyst for promoting and making you know viral many conspiracy theories because they are computationally predicting using incredibly sophisticated amounts of data that are being collected about us that we don't even know anything about they are predicting what is going to grab our attention so as a result a fringe conspiracy theory can become the new normal and we can see president trump building a political coalition on the very basis of bringing together lots of conspiracy theories lots of fringe groups and you can build a coalition amongst an alienated population using that approach it straight out of the neo fascist playbook i in my view the message of satanic guthrie here and say

a us our correspondent and c. rist to princeton trump during a town who were doing an action season and she says. like somebody is crazy who not only is is that can is not a constructive way to talk about people who are sharing conspiracy theories i cannot work out if prison term believes them or not but he think so when talking to someone and. when talking to somebody who believes. a conspiracy theory it's important not to alienate them for example the term crazy might not be the most enduring or empathetic way to go about it social exclusion prevents belief and conspiracy theories. but it is also important to keep realistic expectations in mind because this information is really hard to correct. you know even in the face of explicit debunking messages people continue to make judgments

and behave in ways that are shaped by misinformation and so going about it in an empathetic way and pointing out that you know conspiracies do exist but they tend to be brought to the public eye i whistle blowers or investigative journalists or government investigations and not read it you search for example i suppose a new to this my family a huge chunk supporters on are in denial free ality drives me crazy because it makes me question reality or one. when he's doing this when this is joe chips conspiracy theories of long existed even before president trump was born or he became president he's kind of exasperation at that this seems to be in a time when we can't get attention to them not even to us in this room yeah so we're living in uncertain times and people are most vulnerable to

conspiracy theories when he'll uncertain and lack control they start to speak meaning and identify patterns and randomness ironically news that leaves only make us feel less powerful so conspiracy theories are more appealing and they are satisfy but that might explain why now seems to be particularly vulnerable moment. this is just been. jeff loreal ski and he is that's our cell of a film called the social dynamics and it looks at social media as being quite instrumental when it comes to misinformation and disinformation and you know last week away in a number of people a mob infiltrated at the council building in 19 states he was insufficient and asked about the role that social media is playing in giving out bad information to people this is what he told a.p. news these things are going to get worse because of social media the trend in the

trajectory is for more people to believe more and more and accuracy is more about information more racist information more hate speech that's going to be the system that's how the system is operating right and if you let that system keep going on autopilot it's going to get worse. and in my mind it doesn't stop here with this event unfortunately right these ideas haven't disappeared from the world and these ideas are only going to continue to foam and on these systems and they're going to exponentially grow just like the algorithms push for exponential growth i'm wondering where messages and then spent if this is what is different of cool sci fi conspiracy theories from the yes but social media is doubt what's making it different. i think you have to layer the conditions of alienation that both nadi and spencer have alluded to it people feel alienated they feel let down and we should think about in an empathic way where people are coming from at this time

because often conspiracy theories are such in some cases that might start with some kernel of of skepticism or some kernel of an actually interesting and important question right like not all vaccines are good for everybody at all times or perhaps technologies could emit radiation but the fact that they amplify they bubble up and they polarize because when we go on social media we generally are in these walled gardens we just see what people we follow have to say the world is presented to us like it's like the real world but it's actually the social media world and we're being fed concept that often reinforces our amplifies our own views or you know creates more sensationalism so as a result our very experience that democracy relies upon that actually quite honestly even our media have let us down with with the fragmentation of fox news versus other channels. that is actually

a huge problem because democracy relies upon people having different opinions but being able to come together in a tolerant and compassionate way to understands and communicate with one another and that is the exact opposite of what is happening via social media so the architecture of social media which is based upon getting people's attention keeping keeping them on the same platform as much as possible and extracting data and manipulating behavior accordingly that is the that is an architecture that is antithetical to democracy so i don't want to state everything is caused by social media but i do want to see the social media at this current moment is an amplification of this polarization crisis and that's why we have to restore it in the image of greater humanity and actual democracy a people's face democracy that's what i believe in why do people believe conspiracy theory. and i'm going to shame peace with our audience from my laptop he says from your facebook page when you speak. cow man as the internet coup attempt was

identified as you and people believed it spent one thing and how is that even possible. well i mean you just say your stenson is no. thank you for clearing that up. conspiracy theories you know they answer a psychological need that people 'd have and they are so apt as strong. there's a strong emotional power to them and they act as political mobilize ors and they're also useful to scapegoat different groups that are already sort of marginalized and oppressed in the society sometimes or needs from above 'd they're often sort of groups from below that are 'd already put down on and sometimes are very obscure figures or institutions so i in this case i fit in as the obscure figure i acted as a scapegoat you know this tweet was by winwood who was one of the lawyers pursuing

a crack in lawsuits that the elections were or. were rigged and so he wanted to scapegoat. and others for the violence at the capitol you know he's on the far right and he wanted to the far right not to take. take responsibility for that and then he also wanted to scapegoat she went on sherman or cow man as instead of being one of the people of the far right itself as actually belonging to someone else it was a sort of double scapegoat there and that way they don't have to look like and spencer you don't even know what i did and i was about 15 years younger than me so i was actually quite. good to ready them. so i really i did say to our audience it this is the only time that we can put conspiracy theory into comment section and i will bring them up so high and $0.90 you know speak because something is considered a conspiracy doesn't mean it's not true. ah now we're stuck not right

right because conspiracies do occur we know for example that the u.s. national security agency spied on civilian internet users so sometimes things that sound crazy actually are true and sometimes these dark plots are actually taking place and that's a big red in correcting these beliefs and a big part of a lot of conspiracy theories is that people who try to debunk that must be part of the plot. that makes a really challenging. articulate you know it. yeah you know i really appreciate what both 90 and spencer have said and spencer made a really important point about how those that are most vulnerable and marginalized in our world are not only scapegoated but how this current you know you know attention spectacle fueled way of making conspiracy theories go viral and become

the new normal actually often harms people who are already vulnerable and marginalized and we've seen that around the world and our audience is global and i just want to point out how a company like facebook is not just a social media platform it's the biggest media company in the history of the world's whatsapp has has basically annihilated many local i a species and local kind of technology infrastructure and so in places like my in mar you know in burma in sri lanka in the philippines and many other countries of in the world. those who have perpetrated human rights abuses and genocides in the case of my own mar or pushed and promoted conspiracy theories against minorities like muslim people indigenous people you know activists and so on they have been legitimated by facebook because facebook does not understand the complexities of those countries barely invests in global governance and they have gone viral

because their content just kind of rubble you know kind of rabble rousers and that has resulted in real violence against people who are innocent of any of these suppose it conspiracy theories of culpability and so this is not just a concern about the internet and social media this is a concern about the dignity of people who are already marginalized by our existing systems of power. and you will easily see one ready. yet to be censorious in a lot of those conspiracy theories in the us one of my favorite ones in the last 2 years was by stuart rhodes of the oath keepers there one of the main militia groups and he. claimed that mexican cartels were allowing isis sleeper cells to cross the us southern border into the united states in order to help undermine our nation so there we see a combination of a whole bunch of different kinds of conspiracy theories all wrapped into one and there's one thing i want to add people have sort of danced around this partly in

answer to the you tube commentators question about how do we know there are real conspiracies and how do we know is that inspires your theories are very well structured the structure of them hundreds of years ago looks pretty much the same as they look now and they act in a pool of other all the conspiracy theorists tend to get together and they work on the conspiracy theory and they create little permutations of it and they develop it over a long period of time and that's one that's one way we know how something is a conspiracy theory or not to see if the same can you can you briefly strip it down if you see these and this and this in that story it's a conspiracy theory that family her and stripped it stripped down will be a small group of generally secretive people and that they're pulling the strings of various problems of the causing various problems in society that's the basic narrative. only respect to make west here is a return investigate and deep bunker conspiracy theories and we talking about super what do we do if conspiracy theories right now not change them mainstream and being

. this was his suggest. i think the 3 aspects to helping people are down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole in the 1st one is just to keep talking to people and try to understand what they believe and why they believe it and try to keep it polite and respectful without necessarily agreeing with and make sure they understand that you have good intentions here the 2nd is to give people useful information show them where they are wrong show them things that made a mess and show broader context that is useful and thirdly you need to give it time you can't expect it to work straight away you've got to get it i might say daisy daisy might take weeks but you can actually help people out. and to be managed to convince people that you are not anti fair and that you hadn't still the capital. well i think i convinced my friends but no i don't think i convinced very many

people about it maybe want to read a story in the daily beast about it and maybe one or 2 people saw that and were no longer convinced that the conspiracy theory actually spread on i became a cia agent and i became arrested so people not just didn't you know not just abandon the belief but they developed it further wow messy i know this is what the you were doing some of it upfront and some of the it's behind the scenes about what do you when conspiracy theories become mainstream share something yes yes absolutely i think what that one of the issues that's at play and in spencer story is how once this once this happens and it goes viral in many cases it's too late you know the pain and suffering has already like harmed you know maybe not spencer directly but others and so my entire advocacy at this time is to ensure that our technology companies also serve the public interest because they

are monetizing our political lives i mean people go to twitter and facebook and youtube and so on to get all their information to get their news to communicate with one another but of those technologies are completely polarizing us because of because they are not trying to polarize us on it as an intentional design strategy but they are designed to optimize to keep our attention and glue a scent which is ending up polarizing the larger environment so if you're making money out of people's personal intimate political even kind of behavioral lives and you're not dedicated to some public principles of accountability and i would also argue regular regulation down you are actually harming society in a deep way and i believe that folks in the technology world. need to come to the table in a real way to have a real collaborative real collaboration and regulation occur and that's what i've

been kind of a slinky behind the scenes you know i've been trying to do everything i can to write about this but i guess my goal is not to vilify anybody even those that might even create these conspiracy theories based on their feelings of alienation my goal is collective empathy and for us to all come together in the idea of a real democracy where we have different opinions we have different views we have different backgrounds and our media support that and i believe the technology companies which are the wealthiest companies in the history of the world can still do plenty well if they adhere to some elements of democratic and public interest well phil i wanted to bring in tack on the station so most of the end not what i want to face which is great he was looking at shands concerns he theories all fake news misinformation the most it tends to be people who assess needs c.d.'s perhaps if we spent more time with asked seniors and talked to them unpacked on days that

would make a difference now yeah. so one of the things that could make a huge difference in terms of preventing our older family and friends coworkers from sharing less information what and all things like digital literacy i am helping them to understand why these you know content that algorithms are high and some are content. what does a share and reply and them eyes agree matt it's not clear that older users understand all of that and so i do think it's very meaningful and important and. impactful to have those conversations were told are people are by. what's today's conversation has proven to me as friends to remain and nullity is that people now are talking about conspiracy theories we do an entire week on them and i'm still people wouldn't people it is thank you for sharing your conspiracy theory it could be any time you were allowed to do it spread settlements and not

a. parking lot is going on one night is consistence worst fear is becoming subtle. and this is the invitation it feels quite pricey mix time going to watching it play . on the deserted streets of they've become from the of your figures couriers and bicycles delivering food or medicine to lock down colombians most of them here are venezuelan migrants they might go in with the mother of 4 says contagion is always on our mind none of them receive health insurance for their work and exposing themselves and very few seem to have it yet there may be a bright side people who look down on them as a skilled migrants now say they're essential to control the virus you know i receive messages on the out saying that me under the euros i was a nurse back who what i am doing is not all that different from my passion helping

others. divorce rates in taiwan are soaring and as a marriage consultant helen knows this only too well. but as the 60th wedding anniversary approaches her own parents are looking more names rather than arms and let out to go to jack kennedy daughter and professional expertise make them see eye to eye. my find that my mother part of the viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera. al-jazeera world takes a road trip across spain the spanish people love to tell you they are and where they come from and i am no exception. one woman's journey seeking her heritage covering new insights into christie in spite of bush and all region it's a story that seems to have been airbrushed simply street. in search of moderates on

al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. hello i'm adrian forgotten this is that is live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes that just over 24 hours the presidency of donald j. trump comes to an end and joe biden will take over it'll be one of the most unusual transitions in u.s. history. i'm come out santa maria here in washington d.c. where security is high troops are out on the streets it is basically cold as well.