False 'antifa' claims spread amid wave of social media hoaxes

Chicago: In the days since US President Donald Trump blamed antifa activists for an eruption of violence at protests over police killings of black people, social media has lit up with false rumours that the far-left-leaning "group" is transporting people to wreak havoc on small cities across America.

The false rumours are part of a wave of hoaxes, conspiracy theories and other falsehoods surging on social media following George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis.

A poster with the inscription 'Justice for George' and 'Antifa on the offensive' is held by a protester demonstrating against police brutality.Credit: DPA

Among them are claims that Floyd is not really dead and that billionaire philanthropist George Soros is bringing in protesters on convoys of buses, and supplying them with bricks.

Many viral posts misrepresent historical events, often falsely claiming they relate to the current wave of protests. One shared hundreds of thousands of times carries a caption claiming it shows a black man who is actually an FBI agent being arrested. The video dates from 2019 and the man being briefly detained in the video is not an FBI agent.

The widespread speculation about antifa has been raised by conservative news outlets and pro-Trump social media accounts, as well as impostor Facebook and Twitter accounts.

George Floyd, pictured, died in police custody last week.Credit: AP

Twitter determined on Monday that a tweet promising antifa would "move into residential areas" and "white" neighbourhoods was sent by the white supremacy group Identity Evropa. The tweet was shared hundreds of times and cited in online news articles before Twitter removed, a company spokesperson said. Yet it continued to circulate Tuesday on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook, using information shared by Twitter, announced on Tuesday night, US time, that it also took down a handful of accounts created by white supremacy groups like Identity Evropa and American Guard, some of them posing as part of the antifa movement.

Antifa adherents have said they focus on defending people from attacks by authorities or vigilantes, but they have been vilified by Trump who, without citing evidence, said they were the instigators of anti-police violence.

Some removed white nationalist accounts were associated with the Proud Boys, a far-right neo-fascist group, which Facebook previously classified as dangerous. The others had connections to American Guard, now classified the same way.

Twitter has suspended hundreds of accounts spreading false claims that US authorities had jammed communications during protests in Washington.

The hashtag "dcblackout" was trending across the US on Tuesday, having been posted around half a million times, according to the Washington Post. The first tweet, sent by an account that had just three followers, made false claims that authorities were blocking protesters in Washington from being able to communicate. Peter Newsham, a DC police chief, later told the newspaper there was no blackout "in any shape or form".

The owner of a Michigan limousine business was forced to refute online rumours when two of his buses became the centre of a conspiracy theory that liberal financier George Soros was funnelling protesters to Milan, Michigan. Social media users widely shared a manipulated photo of his white buses, edited to show the words "Soros Riot Dance squad" emblazoned on the sides.

The buses belong to Sean Duval, the owner of local transport company Golden Limousine International, and don't have any words printed on them.

"It's frustrating when people from the outside start instigating and try to turn American against American," Duval said.

Bad actors have seized on America's rawest political division — race — and the growing furore over police brutality to hijack protests across the country.

"We are seeing a rapidly evolving situation, sustained attention and most of all just deep existing divisions that make it a perfect confluence of events for disinformation from a range of actors who are known to spread it," says Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Twitter has meanwhile defended its recent decision to label some of Trump's tweets as inciting violence, but also said world leaders' comments on the social media service would stay up, even if they break the company's rules.

Twitter has been heavily criticised by Trump and other conservative politicians after it added labels to tweets of his on May 26 that it said violated the company's misinformation policy. Three days later, Twitter slapped a rule-violation notice on another post by Trump warning protesters in Minnesota that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

AP and agencies