We studied thousands of anonymous posts about the Parkland attack — and found a conspiracy in the making
We studied thousands of anonymous posts about the Parkland attack — and found a conspiracy in the making
Forty-seven minutes after news broke of a high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the posters on the anonymous chat board 8chan had devised a plan to bend the public narrative to their own designs: “Start looking for [Jewish] numerology and crisis actors.”
The voices from this dark corner of the Internet quickly coalesced around a plan of attack: Use details gleaned from news reports and other sources to push false information about one of America’s deadliest school shootings.
The posters on anonymous forums, a cauldron of far-right extremist politics, over the next few hours speculated about the shooter’s ethnicity (“Hope the kid isn’t white”) and cracked off-color jokes. They began crafting false explanations about the massacre, including that actors were posing as students, in hopes of blunting what they correctly guessed would be a revived interest in gun control.
The success of this effort would soon illustrate how lies that thrive on raucous online platforms increasingly shape public understanding of major events. As much of the nation mourned, the story concocted on anonymous chat rooms soon burst onto YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, where the theories surged in popularity.
Amid corporate efforts to beat back the falsehoods, the episode became the latest cautionary tale about how the Internet itself had become a potent tool of deception wielded by political extremists, disinformation warriors and conspiracy theorists.
“There’s a war going on outside, no man is safe from,” said a frequent conspiracy theory poster on the website Reddit, the day after the shooting. “And it is only partially being fought with guns. The real weapon is information and the attack is on the mind.”
A Washington Post review of thousands of posts on sites such as 8chan, 4chan and Reddit showed how people on online forums worked aggressively to undermine news reports about a troubled teen accused of killing 17 people, most of them students.
Former YouTube engineer Guillaume Chaslot referred to coordinated campaigns across online platforms to spread a video as “4chan attacks” because such anonymous forums often served as staging grounds for these efforts. YouTube and Facebook have policies against harassment that served as the basis for removing some of the conspiracy theories. But Chaslot said the companies have not done enough to weed out deceptive content.
The Parkland story line took advantage of emerging details about the surviving students — and even how they looked or talked during interviews with television reporters — to portray them as “crisis actors” playing the roles of victims in a “false flag” attack, a hoax designed to mislead the public and build support for gun control.
The campaign threatens to leave long-lasting scars on students and their families, who find themselves linked online to damaging and unsubstantiated theories in havens of misinformation across the Web. Survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 and victims’ families still are haunted by these online echoes of their trauma, experts say.
“The parents and the families of these murdered children are still being harassed by people online,” said Joan Donovan, a researcher at the think tank Data & Society who studies media manipulation. “That is the legacy of this kind of harassment. For years to come, these students in Parkland are going to have to suffer this same fate.”
Parkland student David Hogg, 17, emerged as the centerpiece of the “crisis actor” myth, in part because his father is a retired FBI agent, allowing the “false flag” idea to merge with ongoing conservative attacks on the bureau related to its investigation of President Trump’s campaign.
There was little sign on the chat boards of any unease about singling out Parkland survivors and their families for personal attacks. Instead the mood seemed jubilant, with posters celebrating that the campaign had reached a broader audience of “normies,” meaning people who typically keep their distance from racist, anti-Semitic and far-right extremist conversation.
“Just wanted to say thanks for all your digging and research,” one poster wrote on 8chan. “Extra thanks if you’re spreading info or memes about this kid. It’s already breaking through the normie-sphere. KEEP PUSHING!”
Anonymous online forums have long incubated politically extreme, racially charged conversation with few rules or concessions to good taste. On 4chan, founded in 2003 and now owned by a Japanese businessman, such chats typically happen on the /pol/ — for “politically incorrect” — message board. 8chan, founded in 2013 by those who considered 4chan too restrictive, also has its own /pol/ board, where the exchanges play out under the heading, “On the jews and Their Lies.”
A person who responded to 8chan’s administrative email said the board is totally anonymous and allows anyone to “read what users are saying, unfiltered. . . . The 8chan administration is irrelevant and unrelated in this matter.” 4chan didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Read more about this on the linked article...
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The way Parkland survivors were abused by the dark side of the internet was despicable...
If social media does not regulate itself regarding fake news regulations must be imposed.
I am doing research on a paper I will be writing at the end of this year about technology and ethics. The internet and the spread of social media is one of a few topic I will be focusing on.
that sounds like an interesting (yet complex) subject. is there anything in particular you will be focusing on ? (i know you stated one topic is the spread of social media)
Currently there is a lot of political "polarization" and also seemingly more extremism (or at least extremists are more willing to express their political views more openly).
I've been curious as to what is the cause. (Of course most Democrats will blame Trump, most Republicans will blame Hillary or Obama).
But while I could be wrong, so far it seems to me its the widespread use of the Internet that is the main contributing factor.
I'm not generally a fan of regulating free speech - even the wacky kind. What kind of regulation did you have in mind?
I don't believe federal regulations are a good idea, these social media companies need to self police. If the social media companies don't then we need watchdog websites that call out the liars and purveyors of misinformation. The federal government should be spending all their tech resources on overall internet security keeping foreign governments from hacking our networks and stealing everything from voter data to new technology/intellectual property. They should also focus on putting a leash on the dissemination of illegally stolen material just like a pawn shop selling stolen goods would be. Wikileaks needs to be closely monitored and if they dump more stolen emails and/or military/CIA documents they should have the data scrubbed from their servers or blocked. The US should employ the best hackers and tech defenders to "do unto others X10 as they have done to us" and we'll see how many more times Russia or other bad actors attempt to mess with our media and internet infrastructure. That would be a far better deterrent than more onerous federal regulations.
Left wing censorship. The left wants to censor and eradicate all views other than their own. You have to look no further than this forums for the their whining, crying, and complaining that the right wingers are not playing fair.
look harder, its not exclusive to the "left wing" or the "left" - there are plenty on both sides for this forum, its dishonest to state otherwise.
Oh, that old whine again. It's gone sour so long ago and yet it still gets served up whenever some rightwinger gets butt-hurt.
A postmortem regarding fake conspiracies that devolved on social media as a result of Parkland continues...
You might also include the fake conspiracies that Mueller is investigating.
Poor, Greg. You and everyone who buys into the massive BS are really going to be in for a big shock.
Well so far we have real agents investigating real people who had real meetings with real Russians who then really did lie to the FBI about those meetings leading to real indictments and real guilty pleas. The only fake conspiracy so far is the one claiming Mueller is investigating a fake conspiracy.
Empty promises! You know I'm right.
Just read this story online. This is a disgusting time in US history.
Not to minimize the problem but there have always been gullible loons who spread bogus conspiracy theories, like the John Birchers. In fact those particular right wing loons are still around but now they have the power to easily disseminate and anonymize their nonsense.
The latest on the CNN email.
What is being done to these kids is damn dispicable and sad.
Curious question - why would the father alter e-mails - even if "not on purpose". What actual purpose did it serve?
All I can think of is that he was pissed that CNN didn't allow him (son) to give a speech.
To give the false appearance that CNN scripted the questions and wouldn't allow his son to come up with his own questions.
It totally changed the context of the reported email.
The father left out the phrase from CNN "that he (the son) originally submitted", making CNN appear to be dictatorial, which was, apparently his intent.
How often do we see the same thing happening regarding misrepresentations of what people say? Per day?
We are being deluged with fake news misrepresenting reality to the point it has become indecent and cruel.
Social media platforms that do not exercise editorial control over content are inevitably fake news sources...
Note that the deleted phrase was in the middle of the email. To claim that it was an "accident" just isn't credible, particularly since he persisted in his lies even after CNN debunked his claims. If it were an accident he should have looked at CNN's original email before he made false and easily debunked claims.
As is typical and always predictable in these situations is that the "scripting" is happening on the gun freak side of the issue even as that side is accusing the other of doing it. It is the rightwing SOP every time.
It does seem RW conspiracy trolls on-line have fill in he blank scripts ready to roll for every mass murder...
Part of troll's M.O. seems to be to start maligning victims and their family's as soon as "inhumanly possible".
We no longer debate our differences in America. We no longer take the time to understand what it is we support, and why we support it. We can no longer casually relate to one another that we have mixed feelings on an issue. How can we have mixed feelings on an issue? If you agree with me, you're right. If you don't agree with me, you're wrong.
These agents of misinformation and anarchy are the worst kind of people. They are preventing civil debate. This is not limited to a single issue, but every topic where conflicting opinions exist.
... which is literally every topic. You can't please all of the people all of the time, no matter what the topic is. That's what makes politics so difficult.
What makes politics so difficult is the POLITICS. There's no longer a discussion of POLICY by all the parties. We watch the parties take turns at being in power, and each time things get successively worse.
And sadly, this is true for the most part in most online discussion forums as well
Are you kidding me? We debate endlessly. False equivalencies are on their faces false. All sides are not equal regarding modern politics. For instance, there is no Dirty Tricks Department on the left on-line compared with the organized efforts of RW bloggers to spread untruths and misinformation. I really do not see what your line of thought has to do with the topic. There are multiple current real news stories out there regarding this very topic, Fake News and Social Media...
I really do not see what your line of thought has to do with the topic. There are multiple current real news stories out there regarding this very topic,
Well then, let me show you, using our 2 posts as an illustration.
I wrote
What makes politics so difficult is the POLITICS. There's no longer a discussion of POLICY by all the parties.
I was lamenting that the parties spend a minimum of time hammering out policy. They spend the bulk of their time assailing each other.
You wrote
For instance, there is no Dirty Tricks Department on the left on-line compared with the organized efforts of RW bloggers to spread untruths and misinformation
Which directly played into what I was lamenting. It took you a single post to get right back on the partisan bandwagon, inserting politics into the mix as a means of laying blame.
Rather than point out to you the disgusting behavior that the left has perpetrated over the years, I will demur, and leave you to your seed.
Good day.
Disgusting behavior of the left? My. What a profound statement cloaked in the gossamer sheets of purity from the innocence of the right.
Careful there. They're more apt to actually take that as a compliment than for how it was really meant. Amazingly, they really seem think of themselves that way. Just look at the pious "mouthings" of Heartland America (formerly Cornhusker for Palin on the old NV and who says he lives in N. California now) if you want to get a nauseating stomach full in a hurry.
I'm so glad you understood the contextual nature of my statement, illustrating your ability to examine the entire post, and understanding the totality of the statement.
I'm proud that you decided not to cherry pick a single statement in order to counter with some kind of attack. I'm especially proud that you didn't butt into an exchange that I was having with another poster.
Have a great day.
And yet what he said is a fact - there's no organized campaign on the left to spread lies and misinformation whereas the right not only has established media outlets to do just that but they even elected a pathological liar and are proud of it. How can one have a reasonable discussion about the underlying policy issues when one side believes completely bogus nonsense like "death panels" or moronic lies about a candidate like birtherism or Pizzagate? Even worse the fact that much of the right wing believes and spreads this nonsense doesn't seem to bother them at all.
...and is completely beside the point. My point was that, in order to put policy first, we need to put politics aside. At which point, the blame game begins. Thus, my post follows with the blame game.
Nobody wants to talk policy.
I rest my case.
Shrek is talking about the topic of this seeded article but the point your keep insisting on making is entirely ungermane. What does nobody talking policy have to do with the far right wing spreading misinformation on US social media online? You are the one derailing this conversation. Saying what others have to say is "beside the point", is nonsense since Shrek was on-topic while you insist on changing the subject. The fact is that the far right routinely spreads false news online and is organized about it and there is no equal to that on the left. Period. Care to discuss that?
That's one of those facile, anodyne comments that advances us nowhere. I guess the commenter feels like he/she has made some profound discovery and goes off feeling self-satisfied. It also suggests a "bothsiderism" which does not exist. In fact, there is one side that deals largely in fact and the other that makes up bullshit in bulk (yeah, no side is 100% BS or truth but it is really lopsidedly rightwing/republican for the former and that is verified by the fact that they elected a pathological liar to the WH). So, we'll get nowhere with comments like this unless they're accompanied by calling out the liars and their lies.
We actually have someone on Newstalkers who is literally an anarchist by his own acknowledgement and has posted tons of deliberate misinformation on this site, but you know what, I've never seen Jonathan criticize him or confront him. Wonder why? The person in question is not a liberal or "leftist".
I can only laugh at these "moderates" or those who claim to be oh so reasonable when in truth their judgement pretty much goes only in one direction.
But what can you do?
lol. Your obsession with reliving the previous election is disturbing. Perhaps buy yourself a current calendar.
Care to elaborate about these moderates, John?
There are a few people on NT who claim to be moderate or middle of the road or "reasonable" conservatives whose criticisms almost always are aimed at liberals or Democrats.
When the demented of 4chan, 8 chan, Sorcha Faal, Infowars, etc, were able to post their non stop garbage without receiving much widespread condemnation from the "normies", they were simply validated in their perverted viewpoints.
I have been told on NT that fake news is often just "fun" , and it should just be ignored if you don't want to partake in said "fun".
Now we can know that such is a naive and even dangerous viewpoint. We are at the brink of having an entire generation of people brought up "online" who think that anarchy is a valid societal goal. If not for it's political goal, then at least because it is "fun".
All we can do is hope that people grow out of it as they get older, and I think that is unclear at this point.
"Darn Tootin"...
The Russians are making their move. Russia, little more than a nuclear tipped gas station is deserving of some 'come uppance.' And any American aiding them is deserving of worse.
I am appalled so many right wingers dismiss the Russians efforts. They are a grave threat to our national sovereignty...
Fake news is also problem It is intended to divide our society. We are all being flooded with fake news on social media.
Who's aiding them and how??
We know multiple US media websites who parroted just about anything RT or Sputnik published.
And once they get spread to US media they get disseminated even further through right wing Facebook posters and even shared here on NT. So if you're linking "sensational" exposes of the supposedly "evil left" without truly sourcing your links and doing a modicum of fact checking, then you are aiding Russia and are nothing more than a Putin puppet doing exactly what the murderous dictator wants you to do. His goal isn't to support right wing ideology as you surmise, it's to destabilize and eventually destroy western democracy.
One story that jumps to mind was the one posted by a NT conservative claiming one of the soldiers who was killed in Niger was some "anti-establishment leftist" who got his fellow soldiers killed. The story was a complete fabrication and zero facts backing it up, but it got spread via right wing conspiracy websites and Facebook eventually ending up here. It was beyond shameful, but many of these right wing proponents don't care about anything but their own warped narratives. It's gorilla tactics online, where if you can't win with facts and substance, then sabotage, destroy and disrupt from the shadows which is all these right wing extremists have left.
Thanks for summing the Russia thing up, again. The righties are having a difficult time grasping those simple details...
Obama did think so!
On top of that, Obama knew of Russia's attempt to hack American politics since 2014 and did nothing until the Witch of Chapaqua lost the election.
He also allowed the Russians to have their way in Ukraine and the Crimea
You can't be serious.
That’s a fact.
Do you have any proof of that?
My impression is that after the DNC was hacked in the June - July 2016 timeframe - that Obama got on Facebook & Twitters case to investigate their own "participation"
and that subsequent internal Facebook and Twitter investigations determined a Russian presence as far back as 2014, complete with thousands of bot accounts and thousands of ad buys
all in "violation" of the 'terms of service'.
So by your reasoning, if a rapist got into a girls dormitory while Guard A was on duty, we should just let him stay and rape as much as he wants even though it's now guard B's shift. Guard B should just sit back and say "Hey, he got in there on during the prior shift, I'm here to guard the door, not protect the girls...".
The reality is guard A did attempt to stop the rapist and was attempting to punish the rapist by adding penalties and kicking him where he hurt with sanctions. Guard B came in and refused to enforce the penalties put in place by guard A almost as if he had more fun blaming guard A for his failure than to protect the girls from rape because it would make him look better to his boss who also happens to be the one in the dormitory doing the raping.
Since Putin has come out and said he can destroy us with nukes, and that we can't defend against it, why should Russian then be served with toothless sanctions? That is what you're babbling about, is it not?
Russia has about the same GDP as Mexico. Yes, they still have an ageing nuclear arsenal, but that's it, and our current arsenal would annihilate them, though not without taking some damage ourselves. We are still at a cold war stand off whether right wingers want to admit it or not. Sanctions are only toothless if the current President refuses to enforce them.
My comment was primarily about the reluctance of the right wing to be upset at all by the inaction of the current President, "guard B" in my example. They are giving him a pass even though the rapist is still running rampant. There is a general understanding by those on the right that the rapist is only raping those on the left so they turn a blind eye which is sad but quite the litmus test as to who is a real American or not. Real Americans would stand up for other citizens who are getting attacked by an enemy foreign government regardless of their politics.
In reality guard A new for quite awhile that some unauthorized was getting into the building but did nothing because the peep wasn't perceived as being a threat and by guard A's own words hadn't been since the 1980's. Guard A keeps quite because he thinks no harm is being done. Come to find out, while guard A is still on duty the guy breaking in gets into his girl friends apartment takes some valuable items and rapes his girlfriend. Guard B comes on duty three hours after the incident happens and becomes known but guard A and his buddies go around blaming guard B for the lack of proper security