PROVIDENCE, RI –
Nowadays it is as predictable as the calls for thoughts and prayers: a mass shooting leaves many dead, and wild conspiracy theories and misinformation about carnage soon follow.
It happened after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, after the shooting at the Orlando nightclub and after the deadly poisoning earlier this month at a Buffalo grocery store. A few hours after Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, another eruption began when Internet users spread baseless claims about the man named Gunman and his possible motives.
Unfounded claims that the gunman was an immigrant living illegally in the United States, or transgender, quickly surfaced on Twitter, Reddit, and other social media platforms. They were accompanied by family conspiracy theories that suggested that the whole shooting was organized in some way.
The allegations reflect broader issues with racism and intolerance towards transgender people and are an effort to blame for the shooting of minority groups who already suffer from higher rates of online harassment and hate crimes, according to the expert. misinformation Jaime Longoria.
“It’s a tactic that serves two purposes: it avoids real conversations on the subject (of armed violence) and makes people who don’t want to face reality blame them,” said Longoria, director of research in the Disinfo Defense League, a non-profit organization that works to combat racist misinformation.
In the hours following the shooting, posts falsely claiming that the gunman was living illegally in the country went viral, with some users adding embellishments, including that he was “fleeing the Border Patrol.”
“He was an illegal foreigner wanted for murder in El Salvador,” he read in a tweet that has been liked and retweeted hundreds of times. “This is blood on Biden’s hands and it should never have happened.”
Authorities say 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who is said to have been shot dead, is a U.S. citizen, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told a news conference Tuesday.
Other social media users captured images of innocent netizens to falsely identify them as gunmen and claim to be transgender. On the 4Chan online message board, users freely shared photos and discussed a plan to label the gunman as transgender, with no evidence to support it.
A Twitter post, which has since been deleted, showed a photo of a trans woman holding a green bottle in her mouth, looking at the camera, with headphones hanging from one ear.
“LATEST NEWS: THE IDENTITY OF THE SHOOTER HAS BEEN REVEALED,” the user said, saying the shooter was a “FEMBOY” with a YouTube channel.
None of this was true. The photo actually depicted a 22-year-old trans woman named Sabrina living in New York City. Sabrina, who asked for her last name not to be published due to privacy issues, confirmed to The Associated Press that the photo was hers and also said that she was not affiliated with the alleged YouTube account.
Sabrina said she received harassing responses on social media, especially messages stating she was the shooter. He responded to a series of posts by spreading the image with the misidentification, requesting that the posts be removed.
“This whole thing is horrible,” Sabrina told the AP.
Another widely circulated photograph showed a transgender woman in a Coca-Cola sweatshirt and a black skirt. A second photo showed the same woman in a black NASA shirt with a red skirt. These photos also did not show the gunman: they were from a Reddit user named Sam, who confirmed his identity to the AP on Wednesday. The AP does not use Sam’s last name to protect his privacy.
“It’s not me, I don’t even live in Texas,” Sam wrote in a Reddit post.
Authorities have not released any information about the sexuality or gender identification of the gunman.
Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar fits both unfounded claims about Ramos into a single now-deleted tweet that also miswritten his name. “He is an illegal transgender leftist named Salvatore Ramos,” Gosar tweeted Tuesday night.
Gosar’s office did not return any messages requesting comments.
In some cases, well-intentioned social media users spread misinformation about mass shootings or other events that try to be useful. In other cases, it may be the job of scammers looking to start raising fake funds or drawing attention to their website or organization.
Then there are the trolls who seem to do it for fun.
According to Ben Decker, founder and CEO of digital research consultancy Memetica, marginalized online communities, including 4chan, often use mass shootings and other tragedies as opportunities to sow chaos, trot the audience, and drive harmful narratives.
“It’s very intentional and deliberate for such incidents to also influence what the main conversations really are,” Decker said. “There’s a nihilistic desire to prove yourself in these types of communities by successfully trolling the audience. So if you’re able to lead a campaign that leads to a result like this, you’re gaining more credibility within the group “.
However, for communities that suffer the weight of such cruel online attacks, false guilt raises fears of further discrimination and violence.
Something seemingly innocuous as a transphobic comment on social media can provoke an act of violence against a transgender person, said Jaden Janak, a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas and a junior fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies.
“These children and adults who were killed yesterday were just living their lives,” Janak said Wednesday. “They didn’t know that yesterday would be their last day. And in the same way, as trans people, that’s a fear we all have. Time.”
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Swenson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers Angelo Fichera and Karena Phan contributed to this report.