Outside the school where the shooting took place, crosses were placed as a tribute to the victims. Photo: REUTERS
Today, it is as predictable as prayer requests: a massive hunt left many dead, and soon after the murder Crazy conspiracy theories have arrived and misinformation.
Just hours after Tuesday’s shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, a new wave of conspiracy theories emerged which Internet users have shared baseless claims about the man identified as the attacker and his possible motives.
It happened after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, after a shooting at a nightclub in Orlando and after this month’s attack on a supermarket in Buffalo.
One of the most widespread conspiracy theories is accusing Ramos of being an illegal immigrant and transgender. Photo: AFP
Unsubstantiated claims that the shooter was a immigrants living illegally in the United States, or a transgender person.
They were accompanied by well -known conspiracy theories suggesting that the whole hunt was a presentation of some kind.
Intolerance and covert racism
The claims show broader problems with racism or intolerance to transgender peopleand an effort to link the hunt to minorities who are already experiencing high rates of online harassment and hate crimes, according to disinformation expert Jaime Longoria.
The illness of AFP relatives)
“It’s a tactic that serves two purposes: It prevents real conversations about the problem (of gun violence) and it gives people who don’t want to face the reality of a scapegoat, it gives them someone to blame, “said Longoria. director of research at Disinfo Defense League, a nonprofit group working to combat racist misinformation.
Within hours of the crime, posts saying it is not true that the shooter lives in the country illegally. Some users added colorful details like he had “escaped from the Border Patrol.”
“He was an illegal alien wanted for murder from El Salvador, ” read a tweet with hundreds of retweets and likes.”It was blood on Biden’s hands and it shouldn’t have happened, ” said another.
The man authorities said fired the gun, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was a U.S. citizen, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a news conference Tuesday.
A woman holds a photo of Nevaeh Bravo, one of the victims of the crime. Photo: AFP
Other social media users have used pictures of innocent users to falsely identify them as the culprit and say he or she is transgender.
On the 4Chan forum, users shared the photo and commented on a plan to portray the culprit as transgender, without any evidence for it.
A tweet that was eventually deleted Featured photo of a trans woman with a green bottle next to the mouth, looking at the camera and with headphones in one ear.
“LATEST MOMENT: THE IDENTITY OF THE SHOOTER HAS BEEN REVEALED,” said the user, who used a pejorative term to say the culprit was a trans woman with a YouTube channel.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz entertains a police officer at a vigil for shooting victims. Photo: AP
None of that is true. The photo actually showed a 22-year-old trans woman named Sabrina, who lives in New York. Sabrina confirmed, requesting not to publish her last name for privacy Associated Press that the photo belonged to him and said it was not associated with the alleged YouTube account.
Sabrina said she was harassed online, and she received those messages they accused him of being the author of the hunt. He responded to several posts spreading the image requesting that the posts be deleted.
“This whole trial was just horrible,” Sabrina told the AP.
Another widely spread photo showed a trans woman wearing a Coca-Cola sweatshirt and black skirt. The second photo showed the same woman in a black NASA T-shirt and red skirt.
None of those photos showed the shooter, but instead a Reddit user named Sam, who confirmed his identity to the AP on Wednesday. The agency does not use Sam’s last name protect your privacy.
“I’m not, I don’t live in Texas,” Sam wrote in a Reddit post.
Robb Elementary School, where the shooting took place. Photo: AFP
Authorities have not published no information about sexuality or gender identity of the aggressor.
Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar included two baseless claims about Ramos in a tweet now deleted that also misspelled his name. “Is a leftist transsexual illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos, ” Gosar tweeted Tuesday night.
Gosar’s office did not respond to a message seeking comment.
In some cases, misinformation about mass hunting or other events is spread by well -meaning users trying to help.
In other cases, they can be pushed by scammer looking to collect fraudulent funds, or generate interest in your website or organization.
Trolls as agents of chaos
Then there are trolls it’s like they’re doing it for fun.
Communities on the internet side, such as 4chan, often seize mass hunting and other tragedies as a opportunity to sow chaosdeceive the public and promote harmful messages, according to Ben Decker, founder and CEO of digital research consultancy Memetica.
“Celebrating these incidents is something they do on purpose also influences public debates“Decker said.
“In these types of communities there is a nihilistic desire to prove oneself by successfully deceiving the public. gain some credibility in the group”, complete.
However, for the communities that carry out these severe online attacks, false accusations create fear of violence and further discrimination.
Something as innocuous as a transphobic comment on social media triggering an act of violence against a trans personexplained Jaden Janak, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas and a professor at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies.
“These children and adults who were killed were they just live” Janak said on Wednesday. “They don’t know that Tuesday is their last day. And similarly, as trans people, that’s a fear we have all the time.”
Source: AP
Source: Clarin
