Florida school shooting: hoaxes, doctored tweets and Russian bots spread false news
Source: msn.com
..............But the aftermath of the killing of 17 in Parkland, Fla. Wednesday took a slightly different turn this time — one reporter's tweets were doctored and retweeted to make it appear she had been asking slanted questions. Another tweet making the rounds pretended to show a popular news website's article. It had been doctored, too.
These added to the more standard fabricated stories and hoaxes that have become a common occurrence in the wake of a national tragedy.
Miami Herald reporter Alex Harris, who was covering the shooting Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, had corresponded on Twitter with students at the school who were tweeting about what was happening while the shooter hadn't been apprehended. Some people criticized her for trying to communicate with the students when they were still in danger, an action she defended as essential to reporting — but acknowledges as a point of discussion.
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That new form of misinformation "is new," said Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the International Fact-Checking Network at The Poynter Institute. "For sure, this incident is qualitatively different."
BuzzFeed News........................
Twitter accounts linked to Russian disinformation campaigns....................
Other terms (NRA, shooting, Stoneman, Cruz, Nicolas and Florida) were among trending topics supported by those accounts, the site's blog said...................
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/breakingnews/florida-school-shooting-hoaxes-doctored-tweets-and-russian-bots-spread-false-news/ar-BBJcfHP?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
..........A story on the Gateway Pundit site reported that shooter was a registered Democrat, tying the political affiliation with an incorrect name. It later corrected it.
Link to tweet
= new reply since forum marked as read
with the wrong name and background. So disappointing with the quality of journalism these days.
