There seems to be a podcast for every interest, from true crime to fashion to sports.
But as podcasts grow in popularity, some are turning into disinformation machines, experts on the subject warn.
“The distribution of a bunch of these podcasts, promoting everything from disinformation about COVID-19 to pro-Russian propaganda to just general kind of far-right agitation, has exploded in recent years,” said Justin Ling, a freelance investigative journalist who covers disinformation and extremism.
Podcasts present a number of difficulties for fact-checkers and moderators, disinformation researchers say, while also providing a low barrier to entry for those hoping to use the format to ascend to celebrity status.
And it’s a problem that will remain, according to Ling.
Disinformation machines?
A recent example of podcast misinformation is surrounding the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre where 20 children and six teachers were killed.
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As families buried their children, Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist and host of the Infowars show, told his listeners that the tragedy was a hoax.
During the August defamation trial stemming from his false claims, it was revealed that Infowars earned more than $64 million last year, and at one point Jones was paying himself roughly $6 million a year.
“These people are making and making millions of dollars for the garbage they’re spreading everywhere,” said Ahmed Al-Rawi, who directs the disinformation project at Simon Fraser University.
Jones is not the first to profit from misinformation.
The first to successfully harness anger, conspiracy and misinformation in the name of power and profit were AM radio hosts in the 20th century, according to Ling.
In the 1990s, William Cooper was on the radio every night. One of his avid listeners was a young man named Timothy McVeigh—the man who eventually carried out the Oklahoma City bombing.
Cooper was known for his anti-establishment, pro-militia views and told his listeners to be ready to “wag a war,” The Guardian reported at the time.
Another Cooper fan, according to multiple reports, was Jones. In fact, Jones went on air and did an interview with Cooper in 1998 where they discussed issues such as the “New World Order” and America’s need to “wake up” and “pick up guns.”
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Disinformation researchers say others picked up on the plan Cooper helped devise and Jones helped refine. Whether speaking to an audience of hundreds or millions, a number of podcasters have turned to the platforms to stoke anger and spread false narratives, according to Al-Rawi.
“There’s less … moderation from the platforms, so they feel more empowered, more free to say whatever they want,” Ahmed Al-Rawi said.
Other examples include popular podcaster Ben Shapiro, who said that those who are transgender suffer from a “psychological disorder.” Joe Rogan, whose podcast is ranked #1 in Canada by Spotify’s charts — based on the number of recent unique listeners and followers — has come under fire more than once for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 on his show.
Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist and podcaster, has questioned the validity of climate science, drawing condemnation from scientists.
The podcast misinformation model is widespread, Ling said, and risks causing damage.
“It has the real potential to continue to erode the fabric not only of American democracy, but of democracy everywhere else,” Ling said.
“There really is no end to how powerful radio can be.”
One of the main advantages of podcasting is the low barrier to entry — all you need is a microphone and some basic editing software, Ling said.
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The result? Your message can go straight to the ears of the listener, without any guards.
“It feels like someone is leaning over the bar, or coming into your office cubicle, or sitting across the kitchen table and explaining something to you,” Ling said.
“It doesn’t feel manufactured. It doesn’t feel dressed up. It doesn’t feel like there are any filters between what the host is saying and what you’re hearing.”
That’s part of the appeal of podcasts to listeners who feel disconnected from mainstream news and media.
“In recent years, there has been a clamor for a completely independent and isolated media ecosystem on the right — and they’ve created it,” Ling said.
“They created it thanks to a lot of money from some investors and ideologues, but also because there was just a burst of enthusiasm.”
While left-wing podcasts like The Young Turks exist, the radio world has traditionally been dominated by right-wing shows, Ling added.
“The right has always been really good at it, and the right is still incredibly good at it,” he said.
The multimedia format also creates new solutions for podcasts that might otherwise be removed from major platforms like Facebook.
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“There are so many loopholes,” said Carmen Celestini, a professor at the University of Waterloo who worked with Al-Rawi’s disinformation project.
“You can just hack back into the platform so easily and find the one you want to find.”
Many podcasters and live streamers will post links to their shows on various social media platforms, Al-Rawi said. But since the actual content – and misinformation – is hosted on another platform, the social media giants will find it difficult to moderate.
This means that the content remains active, according to Al-Rawi.
“They remain popular across platforms. And that probably makes it attractive,” he said.
Podcasts are also becoming more popular due to changing media consumption habits, according to Ling.
“People listen to it when they’re walking their dog, or driving to work, or before they go to bed, or while they’re doing the dishes,” Ling said.
“You can take it with you everywhere in a way that wasn’t always super possible with radio and certainly wasn’t possible with television.”
What can be done to stop the spread of misinformation?
Disinformation is difficult to regulate, according to Al-Rawi.
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“I believe it’s impossible — there’s no way you can regulate fake news or disinformation,” he said.
Instead, people must develop their own critical thinking skills when it comes to the media they consume.
In a peer-reviewed article co-authored by Al-Rawi, he analyzed a sample of the top 400 articles from Global Research and Rebel News that were shared on Twitter and Facebook.
“Findings show that 71 percent of the top news stories examined contained some false, misleading and/or questionable information, with Global Research being more active in spreading ‘fake news’ than Rebel News,” according to the study.
Another step you can take when you spot misinformation online is to report it to the social media platform you see it on, according to Celestini.
“There is a lot of misinformation out there that can harm people. So we have to actually engage in that reporting process,” she said.
This practice can help close loopholes that allow misinformation to spread online — even if it has been banned on a particular social media platform, Celestini explained.
Listeners also need to make sure they don’t underestimate the problem.
“We spent too long ignoring Alex Jones. We treated him as an oddity, a freak show, as opposed to what he really was, which was increasingly the voice of a ton of people who feel like they no longer see themselves in society,” Ling said.
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Engaging with these podcasters and live shows can be “difficult” and “thorny,” he added, “but it has to be done.”
“Challenge their ideas as necessary and call them out, in some cases, for what they are – which in many cases are these charlatans who are doing this to make money or, in other cases, dangerous ideologues who have to to be called.”
Ultimately, the disinformation genie can’t be put back in the bottle, Ling said, so Canadians must face it head on.
“It happens. You cannot adjust this. You can’t destroy that,” he said.
“This is the consequence when people have not just lost faith in the media apparatus, but have become openly hostile to it.”
— with files from The Associated Press
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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