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The Far-Right Is Weaponizing Instagram to Recruit Gen Z
Memes are the internet’s new political battleground
Maia is a 14-year-old high school freshman from Oregon. Since January 2019, she’s been organizing strikes at her school to raise awareness about the climate crisis. She’s part of a global movement of youth motivated to demand action, many of them inspired by Swedish campaigner and school strikes founder Greta Thunberg, who posts on Instagram.
“By posting about it and sharing Greta’s posts, I’ve met other strikers all over America and even in Germany,” Maia explains. “It’s been a really cool way of networking.” She says around half her friends feel they know what’s going on in the world. “And most of them are educated through Instagram, which I guess is both good and bad.”
Maia’s social media habit is typical of most people her age. A recent survey by Business Insider found that 59% of 13- to 21-year-olds polled listed Instagram as their main news source. Politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are turning their attention to the platform as they try to appeal to Generation Z’s first-time voters in the run-up to the 2020 elections.
And while Instagram has enabled teens such as Maia, or the Parkland students’ campaign for stricter gun laws, to mobilize and organize protests with ease, it also carries some obvious downsides. In March, the Atlantic reported that the platform is becoming “the internet’s new home for hate,” teeming with accounts that promote extremism and misinformation.
“If it’s a news story, I go to a reliable source, like New York Times or Washington Post. If it’s a meme, well, it’s just opinion so you don’t really need to fact check it.”
“I’ve had Instagram since I was eight so [the algorithm] knows I’m not into racist comments,” says Maia. “But when I go through my friends’ accounts who are more conservative than me, I do see a lot.” After she began the school strike protests, she was added to group chats that shared multiple conspiracy memes dismissing the climate crisis. “People send things to me [from Instagram] saying, ‘Look, an adult is saying this, so it must be true and you’re…
