Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago
#Disinformation Campaign of #Fake Images & #ConspiracyTheories On #SocialMedia Stoke #RightWing#Rage Around #LAProtests

Misleading photos, videos & texts have spread widely on social #media as #protests against #immigration #raids unfolded in #LosAngeles, rehashing old conspiracy theories‘ to support #Trump’s actions.

The flood of falsehoods appears intended to stoke outrage toward #immigrants & #Democrats.

#MediaLiteracy #moderation#TrumpLies #propaganda#Resist
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/technology/la-protests-conspiracy-theories-disinformation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

The #disinformation also added to the confusion over what exactly was happening on the streets, which was portrayed in digital & #SocialMedia [& #RightWing news #media] through starkly divergent #ideological lenses. Many posts created the false impression that the entire city was engulfed in violence, when the few clashes were limited to only very small parts.

#MediaLiteracy #moderation#TrumpLies#Trump #propaganda#LosAngeles#LAprotests #immigration #protests
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

There were numerous scenes of protesters throwing rocks or other objects at law enforcement officers & setting cars ablaze, including a number of self-driving #Waymo taxis. At the same time, false images spread to revive old #ConspiracyTheories that the #protests were a planned provocation, not a spontaneous response to the #immigration raids.

#MediaLiteracy#SocialMedia #moderation#TrumpLies#Trump #propaganda #disinformation#LosAngeles#LAprotests #immigration #protests
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

The confrontation escalated on Monday as new #protests occurred & #Defense Secy #PeteHegseth announced—on X—that he was mobilizing 700 #Marines from a base near #LosAngeles to guard federal bldgs. They are expected to join 2k members of the #California#NationalGuard whom #Trump ordered deployed without the authorization of the #state’s #governor, #GavinNewsom, who normally [legally] has command of the #troops.

#MediaLiteracy#SocialMedia #moderation #propaganda #disinformation#LAprotests
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

The latest deployments prompted a new wave of misleading images to spread—some purporting to show #Marines & the #military service’s weapons in action. One was a still from “Blue Thunder,” a 1983 action-thriller about a conspiracy to deprive residents of #LosAngeles of their civil rights. It features a climatic dogfight over the city’s downtown.

#MediaLiteracy#SocialMedia #moderation#Trump#TrumpLies#ConspiracyTheories #propaganda #disinformation#LAprotests #immigration #protests
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

Darren L. Linvill, a researcher at Clemson University’s #Media Forensics Hub, said #conservatives online were “building up the riots in a performative way” to help bolster #Trump’s claims that #LosAngeles had been taken over by “violent, insurrectionist mobs.”

Linvill said the posts were also “a bit self-fulfilling.” “As they direct attention to it,” he said, “more #protesters will show up.”

#MediaLiteracy#SocialMedia #moderation#TrumpLies #propaganda #disinformation #immigration #protests