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Information Cascades and the Rise of Sexual Assault Allegations

The article “Trump and the ‘information cascade’ created a cultural reckoning”, written by Gillian Tett, discusses how new technology connected more people then ever and caused an information cascade over sexual assault. Tett discusses that there probably aren’t anymore sexual assaults now than in past years, however the amount of allegations is at an all time high. Hett credits this to how quickly information can now travel. For instance, before social media, if someone wanted to report someone for sexual harassment, it was a long beuratic or legal process, but now it’s a simple tweet. The new ability to quickly communicate information to large masses of people all over the world exposed more people to sexual assault allegations. This new exposure to information caused an information cascade spawning more sexual assault allegations than ever.

This is relevant to what we’ve been learning in class because it very clearly discusses information cascades. What this article shows is that previously, people were not nearly as connected as they are now. So, if someone were to pursue a sexual assault allegation, not many people would see it and it would just die down. However, now because everyone is so connected, if one person pursues a sexual assault allegation, many people see it and may even pursue their own. As this continues, coming out and pursuing a sexual assault allegation doesn’t seem as difficult. This is due to it becoming more frequent among those we’re connected to.

https://www.ft.com/content/6973e6d6-d047-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6

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