How 4chan and a pro-Trump outlet pushed a hoax about the Las Vegas shooting

Far-right pro-Trump blog The Gateway Pundit wrongly accused a man of being behind a mass shooting in Las Vegas, NV.

Late on October 1, Stephen Craig Paddock reportedly opened fire at a concert in Las Vegas, killing at least 50 people and injuring more than 400. Police have located the alleged gunman's roommate, who they believe “at this time not to be involved.”

Users on 4chan’s “politically incorrect” (/pol/) message board almost immediately incorrectly claimed they had "confirmed" that the gunman was the roommate's husband and shared a screen capture of his Facebook page. (Media Matters is not publishing their names.) The users called the man a “social Democrat MOTHER FUCKER” and said he was part of a “communist revolution.” Users also urged people to “PUSH THE FACT THIS TERRORIST WAS A COMMIE ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA. MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS.”

The false claim from 4chan, which has previously helped far-right trolls and fake news purveyors spread misinformation, also spread on Twitter and was pushed on other message boards such as CoguarBoard. It even appeared as a top story on Google News. The claim later spread to The Gateway Pundit, which reported, based on the likes on the supposed husband's Facebook page, that the shooter was “Reportedly a Democrat Who Liked Rachel Maddow, MoveOn.org and Associated with Anti-Trump Army.” The Gateway Pundit later deleted the article, but Facebook has since prominently featured another Gateway Pundit article about the shooting on its “crisis response” page for the shooting.

This is not the first time The Gateway Pundit, a blog connected to the “alt-right" that has regularly published misinformation, has misidentified a suspect in a killing.

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/10/02/How-4chan-and-a-pro-Trump-outlet-pushed-a-hoax-about-the-Las-Vegas-shooting/218103