 So it's been a little more than a week since Donald Trump has been banned from Twitter and other social media platforms And we're learning about the impact that this has had on the aggregate discourse with regard to the US election And it's honestly stunning like shocking I expected you know his ban from Twitter and social media to have a positive impact with regard to Vitriol and hate and white supremacy and the spread of misinformation, but I didn't expect results to this extent this is According to a study by Zignal Labs Misinformation specifically about the US election fell by get this 73% just by Donald Trump alone being banned. I Did not expect the numbers to be this high because there are other actors and entities that spread misinformation at the behest of Donald Trump Far right news outlets like Newsmax and OAN But what this tells us is that Donald Trump was the most Significant disseminator of propaganda and misinformation at least when it comes to the election and that is honestly Astonishing so according to Shona Gauch of Business Insider Online misinformation about the US election fell by as much as 73% in the week after President Trump was booted from Twitter and Other social media sites according to findings by Zignal Labs Conversations about election fraud fell from 2.5 million mentions to 688,000 mentions across several social media sites the research house looked at conversations that spanned fraud hacked machines tampered ballots and other conspiracies the data indicates that tech platforms's ability to restrict the spread of falsehoods is an effective Approach to containing misinformation online Zignal monitored social media sites for misinformation during the seven days from January 9th The US Capitol riots took place January 6th Zignal found that hashtags relating to the Capitol riots fell dramatically during the week after the suspensions Mention of the hashtags fight for Trump hold the line and the phrase March for Trump all fell around 95% QAnon specific hashtags also fell the week after Trump was suspended from Twitter though mentions of the conspiracy and its supposed Figurehead Q went up. So this is absolutely fascinating We're not gonna talk about the merits of Trump's ban whether or not it was a good thing because I addressed that in a separate video But the fact that he was responsible for spreading that much misinformation single-handedly It really goes to show you how important it is that we have leaders in power that actually are committed to the truth and Donald Trump, I mean whenever he would go on Twitter He would complain about misinformation or he would spread misinformation and complain about the election And you know before he was banned if you look at his timeline like tweet after tweet after tweet was labeled by Twitter that You know, this was not verified or election data analysts say that this is incorrect It was astonishing like the amount of misinformation that he was spreading was shocking even for Donald Trump even by his standards and throughout the course of his presidency, you know These last four years he has told more than 30,000 lies 30,000 lies So, you know altogether when you see the impact that the president has on political discourse in the United States It kind of makes you feel like you're going crazy like it feels like you're being gaslit like it feels like we're in this postfactual era where Anything that somebody says It can be true so long as we believe it even if it isn't grounded in empirical reality And that's really frustrating because going forward like as a country. How do we How do we communicate with one another if we don't even agree on basic facts? Like the fact that COVID-19 is a thing It's not a hoax that it's actually a thing or the fact that the election was not stolen from Donald Trump There's zero evidence that that is in fact the case widespread voter fraud is not a thing So if we can't even establish like a basis of the reality, you know facts about the reality that we live in I just I don't know how going forward We can be united ever but this shows you that it really makes a difference What the president says like his bully pulpit is very very Important and impactful and what he says makes a substantial difference because if your ban leads to a 73% Decrease and misinformation about the election that shows that you were doing a lot of damage To the country a lot of damage and for the spread of misinformation according to this one study to fall by that much I Kind of feel optimistic That maybe in the post-Trump era assuming that he won't be influential or as influential as he is now Which of course he won't be um, you know, I'm hoping that folks who were part of the Donald Trump cult will come back to reality I'm hoping that they you know won't be as easily misled And even if there's gonna be disagreement with me and these maggots who are part of the Trump cult or you when these Maggots at a minimum like all that we can hope for and should hope for is that when it comes to reality We all agree on certain things Right, we can disagree on tax policy health care policy and I'll argue because I believe in my position but if we don't even agree that Certain things are real like a global pandemic which is not controversial in other countries or that the election was stolen like if we Can't agree on like these very basic things And facts aren't persuading people. I just I can't see how that society survives But this tells me that maybe we have a chance with Trump being out I mean, certainly we've got a lot of work to do But at least when it comes to misinformation and snapping these folks who are part of that cult out of reality Getting them back into the real world Maybe Maybe we can start the process of deprogramming them I think that most of them can be brought back to reality. It'll take time But some of them are too far gone and we're going to have to reckon with that But you know this this is just honestly shocking to me like I was flabbergasted when I read this 73% Trump really was harmful to you know, American political discourse and that's just from like The public side like what he did when it comes to policies Perhaps was arguably even more damaged, but this I mean wow, this is definitely definitely interesting