#MeToo and Information Cascades
Article: https://www.ft.com/content/6973e6d6-d047-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6
In 2017, the Me Too movement all of a sudden went viral as a hashtag used on social media. This movement is about standing up against sexual assault and harassment and was seen as revolutionary. For years, society has quieted stories of harassment and abuse. Yes, there were a few cases where a transgressor was shamed or cases went to trial, but not many. In the article, it talks about how there are two main factors that encouraged this movement- digital information cascades and Donald Trump.
Thanks to technology, information is now available at lightning speed, which means that victims now have a megaphone to get their stories out there. Users started to see news articles and statements from their friends on social media about young men and women standing up for themselves, which encouraged people to start talking about this societal issue. When people start seeing that their connections are adopting a certain behavior, they’re more likely to adopt it themselves. This upheaval of talking about sexual assault and harassment encouraged victims to start coming forward and talking about the subject. So as this movement spread, it started to pick up velocity and really became huge when celebrities, people with a lot of social influence, began adopting this since they have a very large amount of connections. One specific example of this would be in the case of Harvey Weinstein. Once one woman came out about Weinstein’s assault, one-by-one other victims began following suit until a cascade began.
When Hilary Clinton lost the presidential election in 2016, many people thought this was a loss for women all over the United States; however, it’s almost as if Trump being elected has empowered them to speak out more on sexual harassment. The article also talks about how this information cascade of changed behavior could lead to a “witch hunt” of sorts in that innocent people that have been accused will suffer. However, the reality is that only an extremely small portion of people are falsely accused.