2023-06-28 07:00:02
The disappearance of the submersible Titan, on the 18th, brought to light conspiracy theories about the Titanic, which sank more than a hundred years ago, in 1912. That’s because the five occupants of the Titan left on an expedition to explore the wreckage of the famous transatlantic. Last Thursday (22), the US Coast Guard announced that all people on board died after the structure suffered an implosion.
Among all the theories, the most disturbing casts doubt on the sinking of the Titanic in the icy waters of the North Atlantic and the disappearance of the hundreds of passengers on board. On TikTok, a video entitled The Deep Dive (The Deep Dive), which accumulates more than 4 million views, alludes to the theory that the Titanic was exchanged for the Olympic, another transatlantic from the White Star Line, the same company that manufactured the Titanic.
Unlike her “brothers” Titanic, which sank on her first voyage, and Britannic, Olympic had a long career, from 1911 to 1935, earning her the nickname “reliable old man”. Despite this, her service life was marred by several collisions with other ships, most notably the HSM Hawke in September 1911 and the LV-117 in May 1934.
The user who narrates the video on TikTok claims that the company’s owners wanted to “get rid” of the Olympic, due to the fact that it was supposedly no longer profitable, and that’s why they exchanged the Titanic for the Olympic when the transatlantic was about to set sail. The person also draws attention to the fact that some of the most powerful people who would have been on the Titanic, such as banker JP Morgan, gave up the trip minutes before its departure.
Another TikTok video features a conspiracy theory that the sinking of the Titanic was a “coup” commissioned by JP Morgan to eliminate those who opposed the Federal Reserve, the United States’ central banking system. According to some people, the institution would have contributed to the Great Depression in 1929, as well as the financial crisis of 2007.
disinformation platform
According to experts, TikTok’s algorithm and its recommendation system make the social network a conducive platform for the spread of conspiracy theories.
“It facilitates the dissemination of this type of content,” said researcher Megan Brown, from the Center for Social Networks and Politics at New York University, to the AFP news agency.
While the platform intends to remove content that could cause “significant harm” to people or society, such as violence or harassment, it allows for the circulation of other seemingly harmless types of information.
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A report published this month by the Reuters Institute shows that young people are increasingly getting information from TikTok influencers rather than the media. According to this report, 55% of TikTok and Snapchat users and 52% of Instagram users use Internet “personalities” for information, compared to a range between 33% and 42% who prefer media accounts. and journalists on these same platforms.
Historians fear the conspiracy theories will affect an entire generation of young people, for whom platforms like TikTok are often the only source of information.
“The sad thing is that many of those who follow these things are teenagers,” laments Charles A. Haas, founder of the Titanic International Society, which is dedicated to research on the ocean liner.
“They are absolutely not willing to do a real investigation,” Haas wrote in columns for The New York Times.
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