In the universe of false online information, Mr. Floyd remains alive and George Soros is to blame for the protests.
www.nytimes.com
“
On Twitter and Facebook, hundreds of posts are circulating saying that George Floyd is not actually dead.
Conspiracy theorists are baselessly arguing that George Soros, the billionaire investor and Democratic donor, is funding the
spreading protests against police brutality.
And conservative commentators are asserting with little evidence that
antifa, the far-left antifascism activist movement, coordinated the riots and looting that sprang from the protests.
Untruths, conspiracy theories and other false information are running rampant online as the furor over Mr. Floyd, an African-American man who
was killed last week in police custody in Minneapolis, has built.
The misinformation has surged as the protests have dominated conversation, far outpacing the volume of online posts and media mentions about last year’s
protests in Hong Kong and
Yellow Vest movement in France, according to the media insights company Zignal Labs.
…
President Trump himself has stoked the divisive information. Over the past few days, he posted on Twitter that
antifa was a “Terrorist Organization” and urged the public to
show up for a “MAGA Night” counterprotest at the White House.
Along with that, people are experiencing high levels of fear, uncertainty and anger, said Claire Wardle, executive director of First Draft, an organization that fights online disinformation. That creates “the worst possible context for a healthy information environment,” she said.
… The unfounded rumor that Mr. Floyd is alive is emblematic of the misinformation narrative that a newsworthy event was staged. This has become an increasingly common refrain over the years, with conspiracy theorists saying, among other examples, that the 1969 moon landing and the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School were hoaxes.
… The unsubstantiated theory that antifa activists are responsible for the riots and looting was the biggest piece of protest misinformation tracked by Zignal Labs, which looked at certain categories of falsehoods. Of 873,000 pieces of misinformation linked to the protests, 575,800 were mentions of antifa, Zignal Labs said.
… That began when Mr. Trump tweeted on Sunday that “ANTIFA led anarchists” and “Radical Left Anarchists” were to blame for the unrest, without providing specifics. Then he called antifa “a Terrorist Organization.”
… And on Twitter, a fake “manual” specifying “riot orders” that was supposedly issued by Democrats directing antifa activists to stir up trouble circulated prominently. But the so-called manual was a resurrection of an old hoax linked to the April 2015 riots in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, the fact-checking website
Snopes reported….”
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There are unquestionably left-wing disinformation and conspiracy theories, as well, but the reporting and data indicates the gap is pretty one-sided in the case of the George Floyd and BLM protests. In that case, foreign state actors sought to amplify divisions and disinformation more than create the false images.
Since then, Russia has become increasingly bold about creating an entire platform of fake local news outlets used to plant fictional stories to promote its agenda and undermine US elections and institutions. China has been less bold with creation of images and fictional news, but active in amplifying divisive content and promoting pro-Chinese/anti-Taiwan propaganda.
Iran has also been very active in amplifying divisive content and promoting fictional and warped accounts of the conflicts with Israel. Iran definitely is amplifying and feeding the anti-Israel left.
