Rumors of the shooter and the incident spread widely online – often with little or no evidence – almost immediately after the first official reports of the deadly shooting at a school in Uwalde, Texas.
Here are three of the most famous rumors that are spreading on online platforms such as Twitter, Gab, 4chan and Reddit.
1. No, the shooting is not a staged “false flag” operation.
Hours after Tuesday’s attack, far-right figures spread misinformation, claiming the shooting was a “fake flag” attack. Among their baseless allegations were that the shooting was organized to abduct local law enforcement officials from the border, allowing criminals and drugs to cross into the United States, and that gun control advocates staged the tragedy to provoke public outrage.
Other social media posts claim that parents shown in news clips, waiting for news about their children, do not seem emotional enough and are crisis actors who are paid to play a role. The two killed teachers were also accused of crises.
Allegations of crisis participants and false flags in school shootings are not new: Conspiracy theorist and TV cameraman Alex Jones of Infowars has been lying for years that the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, was staged by the federal government. with people pretending to be survivors and parents of victims. Last year, Mr Jones lost four defamation lawsuits filed by the victims’ families, many of whom were harassed by his believers.
2. No, there is no evidence that the shooter was transgender.
Hours after the attack, a post was circulated on the ultimate 4chan online bulletin board alleging that the shooter was transgender. Numerous photos were attached, falsely claiming to show the armed man wearing women’s clothing.
Authorities said the attacker was a man.
The baseless allegations reached Telegram channels of far-right police groups such as the Proud Boys, where people falsely claimed the shooting was the result of hormone therapy by the shooter.
Until Wednesday, allegations that the shooter was transgender were reinforced by high-ranking officials such as MP Paul Gossar, an Arizona Republican who was reprimanded last year by the House of Representatives after posting a video of him killing a Democrat MP. Mr Gosar’s Twitter post on the subject has been deleted.
Photos of dark-haired transgender women circulated along with images of the shooter’s face, accompanied by false accusations that they were the same person. “There are a huge number of people who post pictures of this man who was the shooter and information about their nature to be transsexual,” said Stacey Washington, host of SiriusXM’s Stacey Right. Tuesday night. She added: “We have no conclusive evidence, but I would say so many photos? God. Something is happening here. ”
A transgender artist told Reddit on Tuesday that people online “just took my pictures and used them to spread misinformation.” After the artist posted other photos as evidence, a Twitter account discussing gun rights deleted a post that included a photo of the artist and apologized.
A 22-year-old transgender student living in New York also reported that her photos were falsely related to the shooter. She posted photos of herself on Twitter to prove her identity, and asked people to stop saying her photos were of the shooter.
“I’m very close to crying,” she wrote at one point.
The Trans Safety Network, a research group monitoring threats to the transgender community, said in a statement Wednesday that it had identified photos of three transgender people mistakenly linked to the shooter, and confirmed that all three were alive.
Mr Gossar and Ms Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
3. No, the shooter was not an undocumented immigrant.
False allegations that the shooter was born outside the United States began to spread within hours of the shooting. Distributed mostly on white nationalist Telegram channels and Gab accounts, the allegations claim he was an undocumented immigrant to the United States, even after authorities, including Roland Gutierrez, a Texas senator, confirmed the gunman was born in the North. Dakota.
Two groups in the Telegram, linked to white figures, said on Wednesday that the armed man had “illegally entered” the country from the Mexican border. The groups, each with thousands of followers, continued to falsely claim that the shooter was undocumented in the United States.
“Did he cross the border illegally?” Code of Vets, a veterans’ organization, posted on Twitter. “Our nation has a serious crisis of national security.
The group later added a post noting that “the shooter has been confirmed to be a citizen”, while stating: “Mental health needs to be addressed. Our border must be secured. “
Mr Gosar also said the gunman had been in the country illegally.
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