Right Wing/Russian Troll Farms Instantly Start Planting Fake News After Texas School Shooting
And now, the 22nd incident of mass murder by gunfire at a US school since the beginning of this year.
As usual, Republicans owned by the NRA are all over the place mouthing empty words about meaningless “thoughts and prayers.”
To the students, families, teachers of Santa Fe High School, all of those affected and the entire community: We are with you, you are in our prayers, and you’re in the prayers of the American people. pic.twitter.com/8bhPWyK7vR
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) May 18, 2018
And the right wing/Russian troll farms instantly leapt into action to paint the shooter as a Hillary Clinton supporter linked to Antifa, creating several fraudulent Facebook pages and pumping out propaganda on Twitter.
Almost immediately after the shooter in Santa Fe, Texas, was identified, someone set up a fake Facebook profile in his name, trying to portray him as a Hillary Clinton supporter, and linking him to antifa. pic.twitter.com/xtINTwMYzN
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) May 18, 2018
There’s also a lot of bot activity on Twitter related to the shooting in Santa Fe, Texas. Four of the top ten 2-word phrases tweeted by automated accounts over the past 24 hours are related to the school shooting. https://t.co/jK8hwKmEms pic.twitter.com/JYip1l1VvX
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) May 18, 2018
The shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, is also quickly gaining traction in Russian-linked influence networks, per @SecureDemocracy’s Hamilton 68 dashboard. (Could reflect sheer volume of tweets, but given what we’ve seen after other shootings, I’d expect a flood of disinformation). pic.twitter.com/K9Zg1tTISQ
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) May 18, 2018
So, people are trying to link Sutherland Spring’s shooter Devin Patrick Kelley to antifa. Because of course they are.
1/ pic.twitter.com/746HsdCodc — Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) November 6, 2017
This is definitely not the first time we’ve seen a disinformation operation trying to link a shooter to antifa. The thread below shows how it played out after the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas.https://t.co/dXpf0mD70c
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) May 18, 2018
The fake Facebook profile purporting to be Texas shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis has been taken down … and almost immediately, a new fake Facebook page emerged under the same name. pic.twitter.com/DlXsDC7Dni
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) May 18, 2018
Another fake Facebook page has just emerged under the name of Texas shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzi. This page is called “Dimitrios Pagourtzi is Innocent.”https://t.co/hTwtBxZtAc pic.twitter.com/cdv83neMVk
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) May 18, 2018
Conspiracy peddler Mike Cernovich jumped at the opportunity to grift, of course. It’s interesting how far right conspiracy con men always seem to start grifting simultaneously with the appearance of fake accounts and Russian trolls.
School shooter wore hammer-and-sickle symbol, which you see at every ANTIFA riot. ANTIFA has yet to take credit for the shooting, they have also refused to disavow it.https://t.co/Xp8wdbfbR5 pic.twitter.com/yLfO9umu98
— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) May 18, 2018