On Friday afternoon, the suspect in a shooting that left at least eight people dead at a Texas high school was identified as 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis. While there are few details yet about Pagourtzis, the tragedy at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, has already sparked willful disinformation operations — such as the one noticed by Caroline Orr:
Orr is what the National Observer calls "one of the most incisive and compelling observers on Trump, Russia, and the propaganda wars now consuming world attention," and she observed that the Santa Fe shooting is "quickly gaining traction in Russian-linked influence networks":
"This is definitely not the first time we've seen a disinformation operation trying to link a shooter to antifa," Orr said, noting there was a similar response after the Sutherland Springs, Texas, shooting last year.
The fake Facebook account is also a startling example that the social media giant is still struggling to prevent trolls and bots from using the site to sow chaos. Read more via Caroline Orr.