😳📲 Don’t fall for this TikTok trend

It’s Thursday, Boston.

Need a ✨ little treat ✨ to get you through the week? Step one: Buy your fave bag of chips. Step two: Bring it to Chichos, a stand by the Copley BPL, who will make it into esquites (a.k.a. Mexican street corn salad) right in the bag. We’re drooling just looking at it.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Green line extension down!

• Gov. Healey jumps the gun

• The TIME100 New Englanders

Up first…

2024 ELECTION

Miss us with TikTok misinformation

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re knee-deep in a Presidential election. But we’re also knee-deep in an age of misinformation, which can spell trouble. 

Our ability to navigate internet discourse and sniff out the facts is extremely important, especially during this election season. So we’re taking a deep dive into a few aspects of internet election culture to help you drown out the noise. First up: TikTok misinformation.

📲 There’s no shame in getting your news on TikTok. In fact, 39% of U.S. young adults do regularly, according to a study by Pew Research Center. Why? Well, for one thing, it makes sense that young people would “be consuming the news where they already are,” said Abbie Richards, a TikTok misinformation researcher. Plus, TikTok is free to use and is “made to be really palatable … entertaining and digestible,” which is a big deal for younger consumers.

❓ But you gotta understand the risks. Some of which are pretty serious. Election misinformation exists on pretty much every social media platform, said Yonty Friesem, the executive director of the Media Education Lab. It can range from AI-generated deepfake videos of politicians made by foreign countries trying to influence the U.S. election (yes, for real); to bad actors intentionally parroting misinformation from politicians in the hopes of sowing political violence or even just getting clicks. But the goal is usually the same: To create “animosity between the two parties,” fuel anger, and erode civil discourse in general, Friesem said. 

😮‍💨 Wait! Before you throw your phone out the window, it’s not all bad news. TikTok’s low barrier to entry is also a good thing. For media literacy influencer Kelsey Russell, there are major downsides to legacy media institutions, too. According to her, sometimes it can feel like experts who all look, talk, and write a certain way are “talking … down to you,” she said, and sometimes about her own generation. TikTok, on the other hand, is more of a “bottom-up information ecosystem, where people who haven't historically had a voice in the news … are able to,” Richards said, which especially appeals to Gen Z.

🛑 The most valuable tool you have to combat misinformation is … YOU. According to Richards, “the number one reason why you will fall for misinformation is because you want to believe it … if you can pay attention to how a certain narrative makes you feel and how badly you want it to be true,” that’s a great place to start. And even better, reflect on those feelings before you repost. It might be cheesy, but that T.H.I.N.K. acronym from your elementary school classrooms is helpful for this, Friesem said. 

🌚 And we’d be remiss to not point out that there are fabulous free news outlets (hey, Boston.com, hey, Globe TikTok) whose job it is to vet the facts you read, which can be reliable sources if you’re not sure what’s what.

QUICK QUESTION

📲 Are you more likely to …

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚃 Well, the good T news was nice while it lasted … ICYMI: On Tuesday evening, a Green Line trolley derailed at Lechmere, sending seven passengers to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. It also caused an unplanned shutdown and shuttle bus service replacement on the entire GLX, which was ongoing as of Wednesday evening. At that time, the MBTA had ruled out any issues with the tracks (despite the GLX’s literal not-so-great track record), and federal investigators were looking into the matter.

⚖️ Gov. Maura Healey jumped the gun on this new gun law. Gov. Healey used her executive powers to immediately implement a new gun law on Wednesday, a move that some gun rights advocates are calling undemocratic. Let’s back up: This summer, Beacon Hill passed a law that would significantly tighten up Mass.’ firearm regulations. Unsurprisingly, gun rights activists weren’t into it. So they moved to try and pull together a referendum petition, which, with enough signatures, would suspend the law until the 2026 state election. Or, it could’ve — with this action, Healey effectively blocked their effort.

🚌 Imagine this: The Red Line goes to Arlington. In other T extension-related news, Paul Schlichtman, the chairman of the Arlington School Committee, is asking the MBTA to beef up service to Arlington, which has seen “steady deterioration” of its bus routes despite contributing millions to the agency annually. One of his suggestions? The MBTA “dust off” its 50-year-old plans to put a Red Line stop in Arlington Heights. Residents initially shot down this idea, making it a state law to keep the T out of the city. However, that law is currently in the process of being repealed.

👻 How do you plan a visit to the world’s largest Halloween celebration? Answer: With some seriously type A friends, oooor this comprehensive guide by Boston.com. The guide outlines tips for how to navigate Salem in October, including how to get there, where to park (if you ignore our no-driving advice, that is), where to eat, how to best spend a day trip, which Witch Trial destination to hit, and what to do with your littles. Bonus: The advice is coming from folks who actually run the city’s Haunted Happenings.

ONE LAST THING

The TIME100 New Englanders 

There are quite a few familiar faces on this year’s TIME100 Next list. Including one cover star. 

Every year, TIME puts out a list of 100 young leaders who are “shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership.” And our very own Jaylen Brown, of Celtics fame, not only made the list for his philanthropy and activism, but was one of its three cover stars with a profile written by Colin Kaepernick. 

Brown was also joined on the list by other New England “phenoms” rugby star Ilona Maher and olympic gymnast Frederick Richard (whose profile was written by the pommel horse guy, of course). You can peruse the whole list here — it’s a lot of fun.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🏆 Thanks for reading! Minus one Davis Clarke shoutout, this list has New England internet celebs written all over it.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 The results are in: B-Siders have proven once again that they’re way too smart for us, with 50% guessing correctly that The Big E saw a whopping 1.63 million visitors this year. One reader said: “Whatever the answer is, it was tooooooo many. Makes us think about NOT going next year.”

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].