Old tricks, new crises: how US misinformation spreads

Daniel FUNKE
Thu, June 9, 2022, 


With gun control under debate and monkeypox in the headlines, Americans are facing a barrage of new twists on years-old misinformation in their social media feeds.

Accurate news stories about mass shootings have attracted eyeballs but algorithms have also spurred baseless conspiracy theories from trolls who want to push lies to attract traffic. And thousands have unwittingly shared them on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

The May 24 attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas was a "false flag" operation aimed at pushing restrictive gun laws, according to Telegram posts from supporters of QAnon.

Carl Paladino, a New York congressional candidate, was among those who shared a similar theory on Facebook, later deleting it.

Others misidentified a shooting victim as "Bernie Gores" -- a made-up name paired with an image of a YouTuber who has been wrongly linked to other major news events, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Experts say such misinformation is part of a pattern in which unscrupulous operators intentionally repurpose old narratives.

"A lot of this stuff is put together almost in this factory production style," said Mike Caulfield, a misinformation researcher at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public.

"You have a shooting event, you have these various tropes you can apply."

Groundless claims of a "false flag" operation, which refers to political or military action that is carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent, can be traced back to the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

After 20 children and six staff members were killed, InfoWars founder Alex Jones falsely claimed the Newtown casualties were "crisis actors" -- people who are paid or volunteer to play disaster victims.

In November 2021, a Connecticut judge found Jones liable for damages in a defamation suit brought by parents of the victims.

But regardless, allegations of staged mass shootings have routinely spread from fringe online networks such as 4chan to mainstream platforms -- including the social media feeds of politicians such as Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and, more recently, Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers.

Hoax posts misidentifying gunmen or victims as internet personalities have also become common.

In the race to capture online attention following breaking news, recycled narratives can be produced quickly and are easier for audiences to digest, Caulfield said. Content producers "make guesses" about what may go viral based on past popular tropes, which can help monetize that attention.

"When you spread this stuff, you want to be seen as in the know," he said, even though the information is demonstrably false or misleading.

- Copying the Covid-19 playbook -

Similarly, false claims about the recent spread of monkeypox -- a rare disease related to smallpox -- borrow from Covid-19 misinformation.

Since the outbreak, social media posts have claimed without evidence that the virus is a bioweapon, that the outbreak was planned, and that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is behind it. Others have falsely equated monkeypox to other viruses, including shingles.

Those claims resemble debunked conspiracy theories from the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Memetica, a firm that conducts digital investigations, has researched some of the top Covid-19 misinformation recycled for monkeypox. One widespread theory points to a 2021 threat preparation exercise conducted by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) as purported evidence that the outbreak was planned.

That conspiracy theory is nearly identical to claims about Event 201, a pandemic simulation held in October 2019, that circulated online in early 2020.

"What was surprising to me was how similar (Covid-19 misinformation) is now to monkeypox," Adi Cohen, chief operating officer at Memetica, told AFP.

"It's the same exact story -- oh, this is all planned, it's a 'plandemic,' here's the proof."

Some monkeypox theories have been shared by conservative figures including Glenn Beck and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, according to Memetica's research. Both have previously promoted misinformation about Covid-19.

Cohen said such tactics may be an effective way to get engagement on social media, regardless of the falsity of the information being shared.

"It's the replication of what seems to work in the past," he said. "Why work hard when you don't have to?"

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DISINFORMATION

U.S. dismisses Russian claims of biowarfare labs in Ukraine

Wed, March 9, 2022, 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Wednesday denied renewed Russian accusations that Washington was operating biowarfare labs in Ukraine, calling the claims "laughable" and suggesting Moscow may be laying the groundwork to use a chemical or biological weapon.

Late on Tuesday, Russia repeated its accusation of several years that the United States is working with Ukrainian laboratories to develop biological weapons. Such assertions in Russian media increased in the run-up to Moscow's military move into Ukraine and were made as recently as Wednesday by foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

"The Russian accusations are absurd, they are laughable and you know, in the words of my Irish Catholic grandfather, a bunch of malarkey. There's nothing to it. It's classic Russian propaganda," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.

In a statement, also released on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Russia "is inventing false pretexts in an attempt to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, citing what she called Russia's "false claims," wrote on Twitter: "It’s Russia that has a long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons, including in attempted assassinations and poisoning of Putin’s political enemies like Alexey Navalny."

There was no immediate response from the Russian embassy in Washington to the U.S. assertions on Wednesday. Russia has denied carrying out an attack on Navalny.

On Wednesday, Zakharova said Russia had documents showing the Ukrainian health ministry had ordered the destruction of samples of plague, cholera, anthrax and other pathogens before Feb. 24, when Russian forces moved into Ukraine.

Zakharova said the documents unearthed by Russian forces in Ukraine showed "an emergency attempt to erase evidence of military biological programmes" financed by the Pentagon. She provided no further details on the documents.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm her information.

A Ukrainian presidential spokesperson said: "Ukraine strictly denies any such allegation."

Like many other countries, Ukraine has public health laboratories researching how to mitigate the threats of dangerous diseases affecting both animals and humans. Its laboratories have received support from the United States, European Union and World Health Organization.

The Pentagon's Biological Threat Reduction Program has been working with the Ukrainian government to ensure the security of pathogens and toxins stored in the laboratories. In the midst of similar biowarfare accusations in 2020, the U.S. embassy in Kyiv issued a statement saying its involvement was to ensure "dangerous pathogens do not fall into the wrong hands."

A former U.S. official, who is familiar with the cooperation between Kyiv and Washington, said the United States had helped to convert several Ukrainian laboratories that had been involved in the former Soviet Union's biological weapons program into public health facilities.

(Editing by Gareth Jones, Angus MacSwan and Howard Goller)

White House warns Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine

Wed, March 9, 2022

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday warned of the potential for Russia to use chemical weapons in Ukraine after Moscow alleged the United States was housing biological weapons in Ukrainian territory.

Psaki called the claim from Russia "false" and "preposterous," and she warned it could serve as a pretext for the Russians to deploy chemical weapons in their assault on Ukraine.

"It's the kind of disinformation operation we've seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent," Psaki said in a statement.

"Also, Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating. In December, Russia falsely accused the U.S. of deploying contractors with chemical weapons in Ukraine," she continued.

"This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine. Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It's a clear pattern," she said.

Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, claimed Russia discovered evidence of a program to develop anthrax and other biological weapons run by the United States in Ukraine, Reuters reported. She alleged the program was backed by the Pentagon.

"This Russian disinformation is total nonsense and not the first time Russia has invented such false claims against another country," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. "Also, these claims have been debunked conclusively and repeatedly over many years."

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby at a Wednesday briefing called the claims "absurd" and "laughable."

Warnings from the White House that Russia could use chemical weapons in its invasion of Ukraine come as the Russian military is increasingly targeting civilians and nongovernment buildings.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian strike earlier Wednesday hit a hospital building in the city of Mariupol, including a maternity ward. Videos have circulated of women and children attempting to flee the violence, and hundreds of civilians have died since the invasion began last month.

Parkland families, Florida lawmakers denounce GOP Rep.’s tweets denying Parkland shooting



Bianca Padró Ocasio
Wed, January 20, 2021, 4:00 AM

Newly surfaced Facebook messages from 2018 show U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene agreeing with comments spreading the conspiracy that the Parkland school shooting where 17 students and faculty members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High were killed was a “false flag planned shooting.”

In a post about a story from Fox News that she shared on May 15, 2018, Greene questioned why Broward Sheriff’s school resource deputy Scot Peterson was receiving his state pension. Peterson resigned from BSO after surveillance footage showed he took cover outside the school building while the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting was going on.

Several people commented saying it “sounds like a payoff” for “going along with the evil plan.”


“My thoughts exactly!!” said Greene said in one of the responses.

Green is an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy movement. Twitter temporarily suspended her account on Sunday after she tweeted conspiracy-laced theories about the Georgia elections, 11 days after pro-Trump mobs overtook the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, resulting in the deaths of five people, including a Capitol Police officer.

Greene’s 2-year-old interactions were first reported by Media Matters For America, the progressive watchdog monitoring conservative misinformation.

Greene, a newly elected Republican from Georgia, championed Trump’s false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, claims scores of judges threw out of court for lack of evidence.

Several South Florida Democrats denounced Greene’s comments that have just come to light, including U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, who represents Parkland.

“Radical conspiracy theorists cruelly came to our community in the days after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to outrageously deny that 17 people were killed,” Deutch said. “It’s infuriating that someone like that was elected to Congress.”

Deutch said Greene should “disavow these comments, she should apologize to everyone that she has offended, and, most importantly, she should tell her followers the truth.”

Florida’s Director of Emergency Management Jared Moskowitz, of Coral Springs, said in a tweet that Greene should resign from her position and come to speak to the families of the victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old shooting victim Jamie Guttenberg, said in a series of tweets that Greene should resign and apologize for her past comments.

“It appears you think or at one time thought the school shooting in Florida was a false flag. I know you have met Parkland parents. This is my daughter Jaime, she was killed that day. Do you still believe this? Why would you say this?” Guttenberg tweeted.

Fact and Mythmaking Blend in Ukraine's Information War

Stuart A. Thompson and Davey Alba
Thu, March 3, 2022, 

A quiet embankment along the Dnieper River in Kyiv, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times).

Just days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a pilot with a mysterious nickname was quickly becoming the conflict’s first wartime hero. Named the Ghost of Kyiv, the ace fighter had apparently single-handedly shot down several Russian fighter jets.

The story was shared by the official Ukraine Twitter account Feb. 27 in a thrilling montage video set to thumping music, showing the fighter swooping through the Ukrainian skies as enemy planes exploded around him. The Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s main security agency, also relayed the tale on its official Telegram channel, which has over 700,000 subscribers.

The story of a single pilot beating the superior Russian air force found wide appeal online, thanks to the official Ukraine accounts and many others. Videos of the so-called Ghost of Kyiv had more than 9.3 million views on Twitter, and the pilot was mentioned in thousands of Facebook groups reaching up to 717 million followers. On YouTube, videos promoting the Ukrainian fighter collected 6.5 million views, while TikTok videos with the hashtag #ghostofkyiv reached 200 million views.

There was just one problem: The Ghost of Kyiv may be a myth.

While there are reports of some Russian planes getting destroyed in combat, there is no information linking them to a single Ukrainian pilot. One of the first videos that went viral, which was included in the montage shared by the official Ukraine Twitter account, was actually a computer rendering from a combat flight simulator originally uploaded by a YouTube user with just 3,000 subscribers. And a photo supposedly confirming the fighter’s existence, shared by a former president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, was from a 2019 Twitter post by the Ukrainian defense ministry.

           IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE

During the summer of 1914 in a crucial battle in Mons Belgium British troops claimed to have seen St. George and a group of Longbowmen in the skies, which they claimed to have turned the battle in their favour.

This is known as the Legend of Mons, and occult horror author Arthur Machen claimed at the time that it was based on his short story called the Bowman which had been published in the popular press of the day. However historian A.J.P Taylor believed the story and recorded it in his history of WWI.

The fact that the tale and trench rumours of Angels of Mons appeared the summer before may have had a subconcious effect on the soldiers in the trenches facing the first industrialized war of mass murder. 

          LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: WWI Xmas Mutiny (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

When fact-checking website Snopes published an article debunking the video, some social media users pushed back.

“Why can’t we just let people believe some things?” one Twitter user replied. “If the Russians believe it, it brings fear. If the Ukrainians believe it, it gives them hope.”

In the information war over the invasion of Ukraine, some of the country’s official accounts have pushed stories with questionable veracity, spreading anecdotes, gripping on-the-ground accounts and even some unverified information that was later proved false, in a rapid jumble of fact and myth.

The claims by Ukraine do not compare to the falsehoods being spread by Russia, like laying the groundwork for a “false flag” operation in the lead-up to the invasion, which the Biden administration sought to derail. As the invasion neared, Russia falsely claimed that it was responding to Ukrainian aggression and liberating citizens from fascists and neo-Nazis. And since the assault began, Russia made baseless claims that Ukrainians had indiscriminately bombed hospitals and killed civilians.

Instead, Ukraine’s online propaganda is largely focused on its heroes and martyrs, characters that help dramatize tales of Ukrainian fortitude and Russian aggression.

But the Ukrainian claims on social media have also raised thorny questions about how false and unproven content should be handled during war — when lives are at stake and a Western ally is fighting for its survival against a powerful invading force.

“Ukraine is involved in pretty classic propaganda,” said Laura Edelson, a computer scientist studying misinformation at New York University. “They are telling stories that support their narrative. Sometimes false information is making its way in there, too, and more of it is getting through because of the overall environment.”

Anecdotes detailing Ukrainian bravery or Russian brutality are crucial to the country’s war plan, according to experts, and they are part of established war doctrine that values winning not just individual skirmishes but also the hearts and minds of citizens and international observers.

That is especially important during this conflict, as Ukrainians try to keep morale high among the fighters and marshal global support for their cause.

“If Ukraine had no messages of the righteousness of its cause, the popularity of its cause, the valor of its heroes, the suffering of its populace, then it would lose,” said Peter W. Singer, a strategist and senior fellow at New America, a think tank in Washington. “Not just the information war, but it would lose the overall war.”

In previous wars, combatants would try to sabotage enemy communication and limit the spread of wartime propaganda, even cutting physical communication lines like telegraph cables. But there are fewer such cables in the internet age, so in addition to downing communication towers and disrupting pockets of internet access, the modern strategy also involves flooding the internet with viral messages that drown out opposing narratives.

That digital battle moved at startling speed, experts noted, using an array of social media accounts, official websites and news conferences streamed online to spread Ukraine’s message.

“You have to have the message that goes the most viral,” Singer said.

That was the case with another report from Ukraine involving a remarkable confrontation on Snake Island, an outpost in the Black Sea. According to an audio recording released by Pravda, a Ukrainian newspaper, and later verified by Ukraine officials, 13 border guards were offered a frightening ultimatum by an advancing Russian military unit: surrender or face an attack. The Ukrainians responded instead with an expletive, before apparently being killed.

Audio of the exchange went viral on social media, and the clip posted Feb. 24 by Pravda received more than 3.5 million views on YouTube. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine personally announced the deaths in a video, saying they would each be awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.

But just days later, Ukrainian officials confirmed in a Facebook post that the men were still alive, taken prisoner by Russian forces.

Social media has become the main conduit for pushing the information, verified or not, giving tech companies a role in the information war too. The fake Ghost of Kyiv video, for instance, was flagged as “out of context” by Twitter, but the montage posted to Ukraine’s official Twitter account received no such flag. The false photo posted by Poroshenko, the former Ukrainian president, also had no flag.

While Twitter monitors its service for harmful content, including manipulated or mislabeled videos, it said that tweets simply mentioning the Ghost of Kyiv do not violate its rules.

“When we identify content and accounts that violate the Twitter Rules, we’ll take enforcement action,” the company said.

In exercising discretion over how unverified or false content is moderated, social media companies have decided to “pick a side,” according to Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and a former head of security at Facebook.

“I think this demonstrates the limits of ‘fact-checking’ in a fast-moving battle with real lives at stake,” Stamos said. He added that technology platforms never created rules against misinformation overall, instead targeting specific behaviors, actors and content.

That leaves the truth behind some wartime narratives, like an apparent assassination plot against Zelenskyy or simply the number of troops killed in battle, fairly elusive, even as official accounts and news media share the information.

Those narratives have continued as the war marches on, revealing the contours of an information war aimed not just at Western audiences but also Russian citizens. At the United Nations on Monday, the Ukrainian ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, shared a series of text messages that he said were retrieved from the phone of dead Russian soldier.

“Mama, I’m in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. I’m afraid,” the Russian soldier apparently wrote, according to Kyslytsya’s account, which he read in Russian. The tale seemed to evoke a narrative advanced by officials and shared extensively on social media that Russian soldiers are poorly trained, too young and don’t want to be fighting their Ukrainian neighbors. “We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians.”

The story, whether true or not, appears tailor-made for Russian civilians — particularly parents fretting over the fate of their enlisted children, experts said.

“This is an age-old tactic that the Ukrainians are trying to use, and that is to draw the attention of the mothers and the families in Russia away from the more grandiose aims for war, onto, instead, the human costs of war,” said Ian Garner, a historian focusing on Russia who has followed Russian-language propaganda during the conflict. “We know that this is really effective.”

Official Ukrainian accounts have also uploaded dozens of videos purportedly showing Russian prisoners of war, some with bloody bandages covering their arms or face. In the videos, the prisoners are heard denouncing the invasion. The videos may raise questions about whether Ukraine is violating the Geneva Conventions, which has rules about sharing images of war prisoners.

Russia has also engaged in its own form of mythmaking, but experts say it has been far less effective. Rather than targeting international observers with emotional appeals, Russia has focused on swaying its own population to build support for the battle, according to Garner.

Since Russian state media is still calling the conflict a “special military operation” and not a war — in line with the description used by President Vladimir Putin of Russia — state broadcasters are left “trying to talk about a war that is apparently not happening,” Garner said.

The Russian government “can’t play to its strongest narratives of individual sacrifice,” he added, instead relying on stories of Ukrainians bombing hospitals and civilians, providing no evidence.

Ukraine’s efforts to amplify its own messages also leave little room for Russia to dominate the conversation, according to Singer, the strategist from New America.

“A key to information warfare in the age of social media is to recognize that the audience is both target of and participant in it,” Singer said. He added that social media users were “hopefully sharing out those messages, which makes them combatants of a sort as well.”

© 2022 The New York Times Company

The War in Gaza Is Dividing the LGBTQ+ Community

Liam Stack

Sat, June 22, 2024 

A sign in support of Palestine, seen at a Brooklyn Pride event in Park Slope on Saturday, June 8, 2024. (Laila Stevens/The New York Times)


FIRE ISLAND PINES, N.Y. — In the upscale gay resort town of Fire Island Pines, colorful flags honor LGBTQ+ history makers like actress Wanda Sykes and drag queen RuPaul in a small park near the harbor. For a few hours this month, one flag also honored Rep. Ritchie Torres, the first openly gay Afro Latino member of Congress.

But Torres is also an outspoken supporter of Israel, and not long after his flag went up, it was torn down by the gay activist group ACT-UP, which was also honored at the park, and replaced with two flags, one of which honored queer Palestinians.

Within hours, the flag for queer Palestinians was also torn down by Michael Lucas, a pornographic performer and filmmaker with a history of anti-Muslim statements.

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The dispute on Fire Island, just off Long Island, was just one expression of the tensions over the war in the Gaza Strip that have wracked American public life. But within New York’s LGBTQ+ community, whose members hail from every ethnic and social background and tend to be highly attuned to issues of social justice, the war has touched off some especially raw conflicts.

Those divisions have been on full display during Pride Month, a time typically focused on celebration and solidarity.

The fight over how the community should respond to the war in Gaza has played out in fiery online comments and false accusations of pro-Hamas activity. On Fire Island, the flag conflict has pitted Torres and local homeowners, including Lucas, against the very activists honored at the park. Elsewhere in New York, similar, if lower-profile, disputes have shaken gay bars, LGBTQ+ fundraising dinners and Pride festivities.

“I think queer people are mostly on one side of the debate,” said Afeef Nessouli, a journalist and activist who has been highlighting the stories of LGBTQ+ people in Gaza on his popular social media channels since the war began. “It feels like queer people are coming out for Palestine in a really large way.”

Indeed, members of the LGBTQ+ community overwhelmingly self-identify as politically liberal or moderate, according to polls. A majority of Democrats have disapproved of Israel’s actions since at least last November, one month after the war began, according to Gallup surveys.

The war in Gaza began Oct. 7 after a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed roughly 1,200 people and resulted in 250 more taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli officials. Since then, more than 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza, health officials in the territory said. Almost 2 million people have been displaced from their homes in Gaza, and the region’s civilian infrastructure has been destroyed.

Last month, the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he was seeking arrest warrants for the leaders of both Israel and Hamas on charges of crimes against humanity.

But supporters of Israel, including some vocal LGBTQ+ people, often argue that the community should support the country because, while it lags behind Western countries on some gay rights issues, it is more tolerant than other places in the Middle East.

In Gaza, like in many places in the Arab world, homosexuality remains taboo, and gay life happens largely behind closed doors. Government persecution is not uncommon, and in one high-profile case, Hamas killed a prominent commander after accusing him of embezzlement and homosexuality.

“Did it ever occur to them that Hamas is a barbaric oppressor of Queer Palestinians?” Torres, who represents the Bronx, said in a statement after the Fire Island controversy, in reference to the activists who removed his flag. “A Queer Palestinian is far freer and safer in Israel than in a Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas.”

Pro-Israel social media accounts, including one run by the Israeli foreign ministry, have made similar arguments. One post that was shared by the Israeli government in November shows a smiling Israeli soldier in Gaza holding a rainbow flag against a backdrop of bombed-out buildings. An Israeli tank can be seen behind him.

“The first ever pride flag raised in Gaza,” the foreign ministry said on the social platform X.

Critics of Israel describe these arguments as pink-washing, or the use of a country’s positive approach to LGBTQ+ issues to distract from its poor human rights record in other areas.

“Just because we can’t have a gay pride parade in your town does not mean you deserve to be starved or bombed,” said Mordechai Levovitz, the founder of Jewish Queer Youth, an organization for Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox LGBTQ+ young people in New York, and a critic of Israel’s conduct in the war.

“So much of my family still very much rejects queer people, but I would never want them to be hurt or starved or oppressed just because they don’t accept me,” said Levovitz, who grew up in a conservative religious home. “Rejecting that kind of binary” is an important part of being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, even if it is complicated, he said.

Disputes over the war have erupted elsewhere since Oct. 7.

Large crowds protested a Human Rights Campaign gala in New York in February and the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles in May. They denounced the ties of both groups to pro-Israel organizations or to defense contractors that make weapons for the Israeli military. One of HRC’s donors is Northrop Grumman, a defense company; GLAAD partners with the Anti-Defamation League, a group that combats antisemitism and other bigotry and supports Israel.

In Brooklyn, the nightclub Three Dollar Bill has spent months grappling with the fallout of its decision to host, then cancel, then uncancel a party for Eurovision, the international song contest that faced criticism this year for letting Israel participate. Activists on both sides decried each move the club made, and in recent weeks, it has been hit with a wave of what its owners believe are politically motivated Pride month cancellations.

The divisions have also ensnared The Center, the prominent LGBTQ+ community hub in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood that has played a central role in gay history.

In March, The Center hosted an iftar event for Ramadan, where gay and transgender Muslims, their friends and community leaders gathered to celebrate the daily breaking of the fast.

But The Center’s own fraught history with queer Middle Easterners and Muslims loomed large. It was in the middle of conflict in 2011 after Lucas, the Fire Island filmmaker, successfully pressured it to cancel a pro-Palestinian event.

During remarks at the Ramadan event, Bashar Makhay, a co-organizer of Tarab NYC, an LGBTQ+ Middle Eastern organization, noted that The Center had apologized for the past.

But he also urged it to go further and announce support for Palestinians, “denounce pink-washing, demand a cease-fire and condemn the ongoing genocide.”

The audience cheered. When the applause died down, Makhay continued. “Liberation — including queer and trans liberation,” he said, “is not achieved through silos or silence.”

Fire Island has been a slow-moving summertime refuge for LGBTQ+ people since the 1950s and has welcome prominent vacationers like Calvin Klein, David Geffen, Jonathan Van Ness and Bowen Yang.

The conflict there arose this month after a ceremony at Trailblazers Park, a tiny pavilion on the boardwalk where flags fly honoring notable members of the LGBTQ+ community.

During the ceremony, Iman Le Caire, an Egyptian transgender activist who helped to establish the park, called for an end to the war. She told the crowd that when she said, “Free Palestine,” she meant “free our queer and transgender people” in Gaza and the West Bank.

“We stand for them,” she said. “When we say, ‘Free Palestine,’ we are not saying, ‘Free Hamas.’”

Nevertheless, a homeowner later accused Le Caire on Instagram of using her speech to support Hamas and to engage in antisemitic hate speech, setting off days of acrimonious back-and-forth.

Tensions rose further when members of ACT-UP, an activist group best known for raising the alarm about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, tore down the flag honoring Torres. The group replaced it with the flag honoring queer Palestinians and another to honor Cecilia Gentili, a transgender leader who died in February.

Jason Rosenberg, a member of ACT-UP New York, said group members planned their protest after they learned they would be honored alongside Torres.

“We thought Ritchie was a poor choice to be honored, especially this year, because he has been supporting Israel’s policies,” Rosenberg said.

Lucas, who quickly tore down the pro-Palestinian flag, is well known in the community for his years as an opinion writer on gay news sites. He has frequently criticized Islam and Muslims and once expressed his support for burning the Quran, which he compared to Mein Kampf. He was widely criticized last year after he tweeted a picture of an Israeli rocket with the words “From Michael Lucas, to Gaza” written on it.

Lucas posted a video on social media of himself carrying a stepladder to the park; tearing down the flag, which included ACT-UP’s traditional slogan, “Silence = Death”; and throwing it in the trash. He did not respond to a request for comment.

“We don’t need Hamas propaganda dividing us,” he wrote in the post with the video. “Otherwise this ‘open and diverse’ community will be unwelcome to Jews.”

Torres echoed Lucas on June 2, writing on X that by supporting the Palestinians, members of ACT-UP “openly align themselves with Hamas.”

Eventually, the Fire Island Pines Property Owner’s Association, which acts as a sort of de facto town government for the summer colony, took down all three flags from Trailblazers Park and said it would find a new way to honor Torres.

Its president, Henry Robin, also wrote a letter to the community praising Le Caire, Torres and ACT-UP. He reminded everyone that, whatever their differences, they were all part of the same community.

“It was not the first time, and will not be the last, that different segments of the LGBTQ+ community have been at odds with one another,” he wrote. “Advocacy, protest, and even conflict are all part of LGBTQ+ history, but even amid our disagreements we can continue to build a brighter future together.”

c.2024 The New York Times Company

Trump praises ‘terrific’ white supremacist conspiracy theorist

Martin Pengelly
Mon, 14 August 2023 

Photograph: Shutterstock

In an online video, Donald Trump praised the white nationalist conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer as “terrific” and “very special” and said: “You are a very opinionated lady, I have to tell you. And in my opinion, I like that.”

Loomer, 30, is a Florida activist and failed political candidate who once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”, earning bans from major social media platforms.

Among proliferating controversies, Loomer has called Muslims “savages” and Islam a “cancer”. She has spread conspiracy theories about mass shootings, including the Parkland school shooting in Florida.

Trump endorsed Loomer in 2020, when she won a Republican US House primary in Florida. Heavily beaten in the general election, she switched districts in 2022, narrowly losing another primary.

Loomer has been closely linked to Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who, with the rapper Ye, controversially dined with Trump last year.

In April, the New York Times reported that the former president wanted to give Loomer a campaign role. It did not come to pass but she remains a vocal supporter. In the video posted online on Sunday, she said she was making her first visit to Bedminster, Trump’s golf club in New Jersey.

Sitting with the man she called “the greatest president ever”, she said Trump was “killing it right now” in the Republican presidential primary, adding: “You’re crushing it. You’re up over 50 points.”

Trump, 77, said: “It’s great to have you and you are very special and you work hard … I appreciate your support and everybody appreciates your support.”

Loomer said: “Thank you so much for inviting me to sit with you today. It’s a pleasure. You’re the best. I love you.”

The ex-president is indeed dominating the Republican primary, despite facing 78 criminal charges contained in three separate indictments – for hush-money payments, retention of classified information and election subversion – and the prospect of more, over election subversion, in Georgia this week.

On Monday, the fivethirtyeight.com polling average put Trump at 53.7% and his nearest challenger, Ron DeSantis, at 14.3% – a lead of 39.4 points.

Aides to the Florida governor are reportedly bullish about his chances in Iowa, the first state to vote next year. But Trump leads there by robust margins too.

Despite Trump’s unprecedented legal jeopardy, some party insiders fear that if he is not picked to face the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, Republican turnout will drop.

“There’s concern that if Trump’s not the nominee, his coalition will take their ball and go home,” Matt Dole, an Ohio strategist, told the Hill.

Another strategist, Brian Darling, said: “If somehow he’s not the nominee, it will hurt turnout. He’s got a unique coalition. He brings a lot of non-traditional voters to the Republican party.”

Trump’s “non-traditional voters” include those on the extreme right. But in April, when Trump reportedly sought to give Loomer a campaign role, another ardent supporter, the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, was angry.

“Laura Loomer is mentally unstable and a documented liar,” wrote Greene, who has also spread conspiracy theories, including claiming the Parkland shooting was a “false flag” operation.

“Never hire or do business with a liar. Liars are toxic and poisonous to everything they touch.”

According to the Washington Post, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims in his four years in office.

Trump heaps praise on conspiracy theorist even Marjorie Taylor Greene calls a ‘documented liar’


Gustaf Kilander
Mon, 14 August 2023 

Donald Trump heaped praise on far-right conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer in a video she shared on Twitter.

Ms Loomer has been called “mentally unstable and a documented liar” who “cannot be trusted” by far-right Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Ms Loomer has also been banned from Twitter, PayPal, Uber, Lyft, and Uber Eats for her anti-Muslim attacks, according to The Daily Beast. She was also banned from CPAC in 2019 after she harassed reporters.

Ms Loomer filmed a video with the former president in which he called her “terrific” and “very special” and he thanked her for backing him.

“You are a very opinionated lady, I have to tell you,” Mr Trump said in the video shared on Sunday. “And in my opinion, I like that.”

She has argued that Muslims should be banned from rideshare apps.

Ms Loomer has also pushed baseless conspiracy theories about the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“Trump just filmed a video with Laura Loomer, a white nationalist who pushed false flag conspiracy theories about the Parkland school shooting and celebrated the deaths of migrants, calling for ‘more’ of them to die,” podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted.

“This would have disqualified George Bush in 2000 and John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 but not Trump in this 2024 race. The GOP is all in on white supremacy, racism, and bigotry. It’s beyond the pale,” Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC wrote.

“Today’s GOP: No limits to the extremism, no boundaries to the craziness, no low too low, no bottom to the descent,” conservative commentator Bill Kristol added.

There's a 'new boogeyman' freaking out Americans susceptible to conspiracy theories

Bob Brigham
April 30, 2022

Man wearing tinfoil hat (Shutterstock)

Following birtherism, PizzaGate, QAnon, Great Replacement, and Donald Trump's delusions about election fraud, there is now a "new boogeyman" gaining traction.

"In late 2020, conspiracy theorists started telling everyone who’d listen about a sinister plot called the 'Great Reset.' The global elites of the World Economic Forum (WEF) had either co-opted or outright concocted the COVID-19 pandemic, they falsely claimed. Then world leaders and technocrats, almost all of whom are supposedly active agents or compromised puppets of the Forum, adopted what conspiracists see as senseless and draconian policies, like lockdowns, ostensibly to curb the spread of the virus—but really to destabilize and traumatize the globe," Mark Hay reported for The Daily Beast.

He reported on a Telegram channel with around 28,500 subscribers.

"But the channel specifically suggested the WEF and its allies’ next big world domination gambit may be a 'cyber pandemic,' an ill-defined but massive false flag cyberattack, or series of attacks, on financial institutions. Or the entire power grid. Or the internet as a whole," he explained. "That’s not an isolated take. There’s been sporadic talk of an incoming, elite-orchestrated 'cyber pandemic' in Great Reset circles for well over a year. But the idea of this digital threat, and its imminence, has seemingly gained traction across the conspiratorial web since around the end of last year—and especially since the start of this March."

In March, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) discussed the "Great Reset" with Alex Jones, who declared bankruptcy after being sued by Sandy Hook families for pushing a conspiracy theory that the mass shooting was a false flag operation.

"The idea of a cyber pandemic is not actually new. Broadly, it’s in keeping with the cybersecurity world’s use of biological disease metaphors to explain digital risks. (Think: computer virus.) As early as 2004, cybersecurity researchers used the term to talk about the risks associated with increasingly interconnected digital ecosystems, in which a novel virus or exploit could hit one weak link, then cascade outwards through wider systems," he reported. "All conspiracy theories evolve, blending with other ideas they come in contact with to adapt to new audiences or changing circumstances. The Great Reset itself, experts explained, appears to just be an update of older conspiracy theories about the dark machinations of global elite cabals that’ve been circulating since at least the 1700s, always identifying new foes and plots."

He noted a post that recently appeared on a Reddit forum linking the conspiracy theory to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

“This is a fixed war sponsored by WEF [sic]. Putin is as much WEF as the western leaders are, don’t you be fooled,” the user wrote. “If EVENT 201 was the precursor to COVID 19, then last year’s CYBER POLYGON will be the predictive event for the coming CYBER WINTER of total global telecommunications collapse which will be achieved through Russian Nuclear Submarines. We will be fooled once again!”

Read the full report.

'Clock show' 60 Minutes does epic interview with 'Birds Aren't Real' parody conspiracy theorists

Sarah K. Burris
May 01, 2022


Travel booking site Kayak recently mocked conspiracy theorists with a commercial depicting a middle-aged woman imploring her family to "open your eyes!

Now, one of the more famous fake conspiracy theories used to mock QAnon followers and the far right is getting the "60 Minutes" treatment.

Speaking to the network, the chief architect of the conspiracy theory that birds aren't real, explained that the government is actually using surveillance drones to monitor people of the world.

Peter McIndoe explained that seagulls are a perfect example that birds aren't real. He noted that if one watches them swoop down and grab your food, they don't actually eat it. According to McIndoe, the birds take it back to the Pentagon to be studied.

“[We’re] fighting lunacy with lunacy,” said Claire Chronis, who works with McIndoe on the Birds Aren’t Real campaign.

"How do you feel about '60 Minutes' I'm surprised you've decided to sit here with us," asked reporter Sharyn Alfonsi.

"I'm not gonna go on news shows, but shows about clocks and time, I'm okay sharing my information with," said McIndoe with a dead-panned expression. "I understand this isn't anything like the media. So, thanks for having me on your clock show."

The group also includes Cameron Kasky, a Parkland student who survived the mass shooting at his high school and also joined the campaign. Many conspiracy theorists have disputed that mass shootings actually happened. The most famous example comes from Alex Jones and other far-right news outlets who claimed for years that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting wasn't real. They went so far as to attack family members of murdered children. One family had to move several different times because they were so inundated with threats. Jones was ultimately ordered to pay the parents millions of dollars in damages for his role in promoting the conspiracies.

Kasky explained that their key way to fight the lies of older generations is with their own lies that mock their elders.

"We don't want to use language that actual harmful and hateful conspiracy theories use to target people," said Kasky. He was harassed, doxxed and attacked online. He was called a crisis actor and his father and grandfather were called sex traffickers, an allegation that QAnon throws around without any real accountability.

See excerpts from the show below:

 

  

One year on, Nord Stream sabotage remains a mystery

FUEL FOR CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Michelle FITZPATRICK with Pierrick YVON in Berlin
Fri, September 22, 2023 

View of the Nordstream gas pipeline terminal -- the twin pipelines were sabotaged a year ago (JOHN MACDOUGALL)

The September 26, 2022 explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines cut off a major route for Russian gas exports to Europe and fuelled geopolitical tensions already running high over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

But one year on, and despite investigations in three countries, the question of who was responsible for the brazen act of sabotage remains unanswered.

In the absence of hard evidence, different theories have emerged pointing the finger at Ukraine, Russia or the United States. All have denied involvement.

- What happened? -

Late last September, a series of underwater blasts ruptured three of the four pipelines that make up Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, spewing gas into the Baltic Sea.

Russian energy giant Gazprom had in August already halted flows through Nord Stream 1, the main conduit for Russian natural gas to Germany, amid disputes over the war in Ukraine.

The newly completed Nord Stream 2 twin pipelines never opened as Berlin pulled the plug on the project days before Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The 10-billion-euro ($10.6 billion) Nord Stream 2 had long been opposed by Ukraine, the US and eastern European countries who feared it would give Russia too much influence over Germany's energy security.

- Tight-lipped investigators -

Because the leaks occurred in their exclusive economic zones, Denmark and Sweden opened probes into the attack, as did Germany.

All three countries have kept a tight lid on their investigations, which analysts say is unsurprising given the potential diplomatic fallout of what they might uncover.

Sweden's public prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist has said the "primary assumption is that a state is behind it".

Sweden was now "in the final phase of the investigation", he told AFP this week.

German federal prosecutors searched a sailing yacht in January that may have been used to transport the explosives. They seized objects from the vessel and found traces of explosives.

They have refused to comment on media speculation that a team of five men and one woman chartered the "Andromeda" sailing yacht from Rostock port to carry out the operation.

"The identity of the perpetrators and their motives" remain the subject of ongoing investigations, the federal prosecution's office told AFP.

- Ships and CIA tip-offs -

Investigative journalists have been carrying out their own research to solve the Nord Stream whodunnit, leading to sometimes sensational -- if unconfirmed -- reports.

Dutch military intelligence warned the CIA of a Ukrainian plan to blow up the pipelines three months before the attack, Dutch broadcaster NOS and Germany's Die Zeit and ARD said in June. The Washington Post made a similar claim.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly denied his country was behind the sabotage.

"I would never do that," he told Germany's Bild newspaper in June, adding that he would "like to see proof".

The New York Times wrote in March that US officials had seen intelligence indicating that a "pro-Ukrainian group" was responsible, without Zelensky's knowledge.

German media have focussed their attention on the "Andromeda", with reporters from Der Spiegel magazine and broadcaster ZDF recreating the journey they believe was made by the six-person crew.

According to their reporting, a forged passport used to hire the sailboat leads back to a Ukrainian soldier while the charter fee was paid by a company registered in Poland with ties to a woman in Kyiv.

However, Danish media have reported that a Russian naval vessel specialised in submarine operations, the SS-750, was photographed near the site of the blasts days before the attack.

A claim by US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in February that the US was behind the attacks and that Norway assisted was dismissed as "fiction" by the White House.

- False flag? -

Experts have not ruled out a "false flag" operation by Russia, with clues deliberately placed to pin the blame on Ukraine.

Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, sees Russia as "the most likely" culprit.

Any suspected involvement by Kyiv in an attack on Europe's energy infrastructure could threaten the support of allies, which would benefit Russia.

At the same time, the destroyed pipelines could help Gazprom avoid compensation claims for undelivered gas, even though the company displayed a reluctance to keep the taps open before the blasts.

Moscow may have sought "to kill two birds with one stone", Umland said.

The Kremlin has strongly denied responsibility.

WHAT DAY IS IT?

Russia says Ukraine blew up an oil depot in Russian territory in a helicopter raid, part of an apparent wider fightback

Bill Bostock

A screen grab captured from a video showing a fire in the Russian city of Belgorod on April 1, 2022. Russian Ministry of Emergency Situation/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images


A Russian politician said two Ukrainian helicopters blew up an oil depot in Russia on Friday.

The governor of Belgorod said Ukrainian helicopters launched an airstrike on the city of Belgorod.

Ukrainian officials denied carrying out the attack, saying it could be a false flag operation.

A Russian politician said Friday that Ukrainian forces blew up an oil depot on Russian soil in a helicopter raid.

Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram that two Ukrainian helicopters launched an airstrike on the depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, located 24 miles north of the Ukrainian border.

There were no casualties but two oil workers were injured, Gladkov said.

A number of videos purporting to show the burning oil facility were posted to Russian social media platform V Kontakte. Other videos also purported to show Ukrainian Air Force Mi-24 helicopters flying low over Belgorod.

Insider was unable to verify the authenticity of the videos.

One was posted by a semi-official Ukrainian military account, with the caption "Ukrainian aviation at work in Belgorod!"

However, when asked about the claims by journalists with Germany's BILD newspaper, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military said Ukraine does "not have this information."

It adding that the attack could be a false flag operation to justify further violence against Ukrainians.

Russia's defense ministry has not commented on the incident.

The apparent attack came amid a wider Ukrainian counter offensive, focused on retaking parts of the territory lost to Russia at the start of the war.

In recent days, Ukraine recaptured a number of towns and cities such as Trostyanets and Irpin, as well as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A US official told ABC News that Russia seemed to have abandoned to Hostomel airfirled not far from Kyiv.

The gains came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing to shift the focus of its attacks on Ukraine, to focus on attacking the eastern Donbas region.

Zelenskyy said that a claim Russia was "radically" scaling back attacks on Kyiv was actually a repositioning.

US and British intelligence have cautioned against taking Russia's troop movements as proof of a withdrawal.

Speaking on Friday, Zelenskyy again called on Western powers to supply Ukraine with more arms.

"We need more support from our partners right now. When the Russian military is concentrating additional forces in certain areas," he said.