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  • Wed. Nov 6th, 2024

Under financial pressure and slipping into conspiracies, why Instagram influencers promote coronavirus lockdown protests

Under financial pressure and slipping into conspiracies, why Instagram influencers promote coronavirus lockdown protests

Former Married at First Sight contestant and Instagram influencer Amanda Micallef has spread COVID-19 misinformation online, but experts say this kind of behaviour and susceptibility to conspiracy theories give us an insight into what can happen to human thinking “under crisis conditions”.

Key points:

  • Reality TV show contestant turned Instagram influencer Amanda Micallef says financial impact of lockdowns led her down a ‘rabbit hole’ of conspiracy theories
  • Ms Micallef is one of several social media influencers who have shared misinformation since coronavirus restrictions began
  • Former cooking show contestant Fanos Panayides was arrested at last week’s anti-lockdown protests

Recently, she shared a video of another former reality TV contestant speculating that the coronavirus was a ruse to get rid of physical money and added her own caption.

“I wholeheartedly believe that the Corona Virus [sic] is the beginning of world control,” she wrote.

A few weeks ago, fed up with being locked down, Ms Micallef visited an anti-5G Facebook group and advocated for an anti-lockdown

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