![]() ![]() Since then, trending topics have become a factor in harassment campaigns, election disinformation, and the amplification of extremism. This is a common sight in the “Trending” sidebar, which was built in Twitter’s early days to show off a list of topics that had caused a sudden spike in interest on the platform. The idea that American military service dogs had been abandoned in Afghanistan was erroneous and easily debunked, so besides being cringeworthy, these tweets were also misinformation. ![]() “Sparky stands in solidarity with every service dog,” wrote New York Representative Claudia Tenney. Soon, PETA was involved, and so were a bunch of politicians. “Let’s get it trending.” Of course, random people obliged, because random people like nothing more than to tweet blurry pictures of their pets with captions such as “Mocha and Macey sending prayers of comfort and safety to those brave service dogs!” A Twitter user called Cheesesteak, whose bio says he owns four cats, shared a picture of a dog with a soldier and wrote, “There is NO CREATURE on this EARTH who is more NOBEL and has MORE HONOR and we ABANDONED THEM TO OUR NATIONAL SHAME.” OH MY GOD. ![]() Earlier that day, the alt-right personality Jack Posobiec had tweeted, “Today I am launching the #NoPawsLeftBehind Campaign,” and asked people to post photos of their dogs “in solidarity with the service dogs left behind in Afghanistan.” “Use the hashtag,” he wrote. Last Tuesday, I glanced at the “What’s happening” sidebar on Twitter and saw that nearly 32,000 people were tweeting about this topic therefore, it was “trending.” A description of the trend, presented just beneath the hashtag, explained that it was “commemorating the service dogs left behind following the withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan.”Ĭlicking through the hashtag, I found a slightly more irritating story. ![]()
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