- Joined
- Jun 18, 2018
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"As demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids continue in Los Angeles, misleading videos, conspiracies and false claims have spread on social media. Many of the posts recycle longstanding conspiracy theories, which have often been revived during past episodes of civil unrest. Some posts have made claims that wealthy individuals engineered or financed the protests, and they have racked up millions of views online. Some posts exaggerate the unrest, using videos of past demonstrations to depict a city overwhelmed by violence. In fact, clashes since the current protests began Friday have remained largely confined to parts of Los Angeles County.
...One widely shared video of vandalized police cars set ablaze, which was posted by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Sunday, was originally from news coverage of May 2020 protests in response to the death of George Floyd. On the same day, a video showing people setting a Jeep on fire was described as undocumented immigrants pouring gasoline over the vehicle in Los Angeles on Saturday. However, the footage dates back to a street takeover in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood in March 2024. The old clips were shared on the same day five driverless Waymo vehicles were set ablaze during the current protests. But the recycled footage gave the misleading impression that such incidents were more frequent and widespread. On Sunday, two days before Marines were ordered to deploy to Los Angeles, old and unrelated footage falsely claimed to show them arriving. One video, which showed Marines driving to their base hundreds of miles away in San Diego County, was misrepresented as showing them entering Los Angeles....Some social media users also posted footage from a video game during the protests, making it appear that there had been a significant military escalation. A video posted on Sunday was falsely described as showing protesters firing at National Guard jets. In fact, the footage is from the tactical military simulation video game Arma 3, which has previously been used to spread misinformation.
...Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University and social media disinformation researcher, told CBS News said even the smartest social media users have difficulty telling old content from authentic images in fast-moving situations. "Sometimes that sort of content is spread by people who are doing it purposefully with some kind of agenda, but most often it's spread by people who just didn't understand the context that they saw it in," Linvill said."
Link
Conflict gets clicks. Even MSM seems more likely to show a couple of people burning a car than 1000s of people protesting peacefully. As one MAGA poster pointed out to me, "it's boring."
...One widely shared video of vandalized police cars set ablaze, which was posted by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Sunday, was originally from news coverage of May 2020 protests in response to the death of George Floyd. On the same day, a video showing people setting a Jeep on fire was described as undocumented immigrants pouring gasoline over the vehicle in Los Angeles on Saturday. However, the footage dates back to a street takeover in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood in March 2024. The old clips were shared on the same day five driverless Waymo vehicles were set ablaze during the current protests. But the recycled footage gave the misleading impression that such incidents were more frequent and widespread. On Sunday, two days before Marines were ordered to deploy to Los Angeles, old and unrelated footage falsely claimed to show them arriving. One video, which showed Marines driving to their base hundreds of miles away in San Diego County, was misrepresented as showing them entering Los Angeles....Some social media users also posted footage from a video game during the protests, making it appear that there had been a significant military escalation. A video posted on Sunday was falsely described as showing protesters firing at National Guard jets. In fact, the footage is from the tactical military simulation video game Arma 3, which has previously been used to spread misinformation.
...Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University and social media disinformation researcher, told CBS News said even the smartest social media users have difficulty telling old content from authentic images in fast-moving situations. "Sometimes that sort of content is spread by people who are doing it purposefully with some kind of agenda, but most often it's spread by people who just didn't understand the context that they saw it in," Linvill said."
Link
Conflict gets clicks. Even MSM seems more likely to show a couple of people burning a car than 1000s of people protesting peacefully. As one MAGA poster pointed out to me, "it's boring."
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