![]() GONZALEZ: They have good Americans, good Americans, well-intentioned Americans who do not want to see racial injustice, and rightly so, putting up signs on their lawn about Black Lives Matter. He's the author of an upcoming book about Black Lives Matter and Marxism. MIKE GONZALEZ: I feel that Black Lives Matter is one of the greatest sources of disinformation.ĬORLEY: Mike Gonzalez is a senior fellow with The Heritage Foundation. And then there are some things that kind of blur the line between fact and opinion.ĬORLEY: Critics of Black Lives Matter say it's the movement's supporters that are getting duped. Freelon says, that's harder to combat.įREELON: Examples there include things like the notion that BLM is antiwhite, which of course is an opinion, that it is a hate group, that it's somehow anti-family, that it is morally equivalent to far-right groups. That's not the case when it comes to posts online that are technically considered an opinion. Information proven to be false can be removed for violating social media standards. Facebook says it's taken several steps, too, including working with non-partisan and independent fact-checkers to root out the spread of fake stories. There has been some Spanish-language disinformation.ĬORLEY: Freelon says Twitter has been vigilant about rooting out state-sponsored disinformation from foreign actors. He points to specific instances of disinformation about Black Lives Matter protesters engaging in violence.ĭEEN FREELON: There was a false story about a Black Lives Matter allied protesters setting fires in Oregon, so connecting to the wildfires there the claim that Black Lives Matter is white led. Ashley Bryant, one of the co-leaders of Win Black/Pa'lante, says they also found conspiracy theories about Black Lives Matter.ĪSHLEY BRYANT: That went everything from George Floyd not being dead to, you know, George Soros funding protests and then the full out attacks on Black Lives Matter, where there's foreign actors, there's fake accounts pretending to be antifa, all to actually just build this violent narrative around Black Lives Matter.ĬORLEY: University of North Carolina professor Deen Freelon studies digital politics. And they tracked what are known as digital blackface accounts that steal images to masquerade as Black people and spread disinformation. They tracked bots that automatically send out scripted disinformation, often from Russia or other foreign governments trying to sow discord in the U.S. Hundreds of organizers across the country formed a digital war room during last year's election. ![]() Win Black/Pa’lante, a nonpartisan group created after the 2016 presidential election, also monitors disinformation aimed at people of color. It makes our supporters say, OK, I don't want to get involved in that, right? And so when disinformation just goes unchecked, folks will believe it if you don't get ahead of it or respond to it appropriately.ĬORLEY: Giger says that's why BLM launched an effort to stop disinformation and urges people to send in details about suspicious posts or stories to the Black Lives Matter website. JORDAN GIGER: Like reports circulating that BLM is going to vandalize businesses in downtown areas, that we are targeting specific white communities, those kinds of things. However, Jordan Giger, an organizer with Black Lives Matter in Indiana, says there's still plenty of disinformation online designed to cause confusion and distrust. That post has been debunked by fact-checkers, who found the photos were taken in South Africa years ago, and it has been taken down. Another that circulated widely claimed that BLM activists had badly beaten a group of elderly white people. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.ĬHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: Log on to a social media account, and there's a myriad of posts about Black Lives Matter, including plenty of disparaging ones, like this one that falsely claims the government has identified it as a terrorist group. Activists charge that's part of an overall effort to undermine Black Lives Matter and its message. But there are also posts that are riddled with disinformation. Posts on social media continue to call for racial justice and an end to police brutality. MARTIN: Support surged for Black Lives Matter, a movement that began with an online hashtag, and today, there's still lots of support for the movement online. UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Matter. ![]() UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Black lives. UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) George Floyd. One year ago today, George Floyd died under the knee of a police officer and protests erupted worldwide.
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