start

One thing I noticed when watching video footage of a anti corona demonstration is that everybody is filming. They often see them selves as journalists who broadcast the “real” news. Eddie also wants to broadcast the real news, so he is going to start making video's for IGTV (the video platform of instagram) EVG (eddie van gestel) FREEDOMFIGHTER. A perfect podium to show further radicalisation. In his videos he shows or talks about his newly found information, footage from the field, and everything that might suggest that Bill Gates is the devil.

EDDIE AT THE DEMONSTRATION

THE RADICALISATION OF EDDIE

During the 4 weeks that Eddie is online he is increasingly radicalising. That is caused by a few things.

Eddie is completely stuck inside a algorithm. Almost everything and everybody he sees on Instagram or Twitter shares the same opinion as him.
I will show you Eddie's timeline, the people Twitter recommends him to follow and the people Eddie follows himself. You will notice how one-sided the information is that Eddie receives.

1 MIN OF SCROLLING ON EDDIE"S TIMELINE

RECOMENDED PEOPLE TO FOLLOW ON TWITTER

WHO DOES EDDIE FOLLOWS

Alter Ego project of Edo Maas
0942662

The Demonstration was quite the experience. The group of around 400 people gathered at the Euromastpark in Rotterdam. A combination of speeches, hardcore music, beating on pots and pans and anti corona songs made the group hard to miss. It was quite intimidating at first but my outfit worked well and i blended in perfectly. Because i did quite a lot of research on these people i knew what i could expect. But it was still a shock to see how fiercely they believe in their theories. It is crazy to see that these people are so influenced by misinformation that they feel the urge go out on the streets and warn people what is happening and/or coming. These people dedicate all their spare time, as you can see by their activity on social media, on their believes, trying to learn more, understand it better, prepare for demonstrations, network between each other. It is a 21th century religion. And again like many other religions it is based on tales and not on science. It is here to help people comprohend the situation the world is in. It is looking for a more logical (human) explination for problems like COVID-19. It is also creating a community. They have a very hostile attitude towards the outerworld but in the bubble they are nice to each other. They find cosolation in this conspiricy scene.

INTERVIEW WITH EDDIE VAN GESTEL IN ROTTERDAM

This is Eddie van Gestel. Eddie is 21 years old and lives in Rotterdam with his mother. Eddie doesn’t go to school anymore and due to COVID he stays a lot at home. The lockdown was hard for Eddie and he started to spend all his free time on social media. He surrounds himself by people that have heavy criticism on the COVID measurements. Eddie feels welcome and heard in this community. In these groups a vast amount of misinformation and conspiracy theories are being shared. It doesn’t take long before Eddie is convinced and starts going to demonstrations and begins to share misinformation.