Twitter’s Trending Function Goes Haywire With Rumors Of Chris Pratt’s Being A ‘MAGA Bro’
When actor Chris Pratt found himself trending on Twitter on Oct. 17, it wasn’t because of his new film or the birth of his first child.
Instead, Twitter users were clamoring for Pratt to be canceled because of his support of President Donald Trump.
There was one problem: Pratt had never said such a thing.
As a scholar of communication, I was drawn to the way this saga played out.
But whereas a lot of attention has been given to how bots and bad actors fan false information, I see the issue as something more structural, with certain flaws baked into the way Twitter is built – particularly its trending function.
Together, they cause what rhetoricians call “logical fallacies” to thrive.
The most problematic Chris of them all
The controversy began when television writer and producer Amy B...