Conspiracy theories surrounding Uvalde shooting fuel disinformation, Department of Homeland Security warns of ‘copycat’ attacks

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The spread of conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in May 2022 was widely encouraged and pushed into mainstream media by the far-right. Shortly after, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement that the spread of such misinformation and disinformation could encourage “copycat attacks” by “lone offenders.” 

Key Players

4Chan, an online platform where users can post anonymously, has played a role in perpetuating disinformation. Similar to Reddit, which has also enabled conspiracy theorists, 4Chan differs in that it does not require people posting to the platform to have an account or a username and comment threads expire after a specific period of time.  

GETTR and Patriots.win, online platforms with conservative and far-right users, promoted conspiracy theories surrounding the Uvalde shooting. GETTR is led by Jason Miller, former chief spokesperson for former President Donald Trump, and Patriots.win is a “never-ending rally of patriots dedicated to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” its website states.   

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal executive department responsible for domestic public security, engages in efforts related to counterterrorism and homeland security threats, border security, immigration and customs, cybersecurity, economic security, and disaster prevention and management. 

Further Details

On May 24, 2022, a heavily armed 18 year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 students and two teachers. 

The next day, The Washington Post reported on information about the shooter’s background shared by family and friends, revealing he had been a “lonely 18-year old who was bullied over a childhood speech impediment, suffered from a fraught home life and lashed out violently against peers and strangers recently and over the years.”

After the shooting, a number of unsubstantiated claims rapidly surfaced online regarding the gunman’s background and motives, all of which spread within hours. Many of the baseless claims reflected values that have been shared and spread by the far-right in recent years. 

Such unfounded narratives included that the gunman was an undocumented person who had illegally migrated to the United States, and that he was also transgender; others suggested the shooting was staged or was a “false flag” operation, a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming a group that is not actually responsible. All examples spread across social media, primarily by users of 4Chan, GETTR, Patriots.win, Reddit, and Twitter.

One viral tweet by a user whose bio reads “Outnumbered conservative on social media fighting for what is right” claimed the shooter was “an illegal alien wanted for murder from El Salvador. This is blood on Biden’s hands and should have never happened.”

Another tweet, which has since been deleted, depicted a photo of a transgender woman holding a green bottle with the caption “BREAKING NEWS: THE IDENTITY OF THE SHOOTER HAS BEEN REVEALED,” The Associated Press reported. The user also claimed the shooter was a “FEMBOY” with a YouTube channel. 

However, the identity of the transgender woman in the photograph was revealed to be Sabrina, whose last name was withheld, a 22-year-old from New York City. 

Rumors of the gunman being transgender originated on a 4Chan message board, where users reportedly made plans to identify the shooter as transgender and shared photos from Reddit to buttress their baseless claim. But there was never any evidence to suggest the shooter was transgender. 

Similarly, after the shooting ten days earlier in Buffalo, New York, where a lone gunman killed ten Black people at a Tops supermarket, disinformation circulated claiming that shooting was a false flag operation, Axios reported. Additionally, it was alleged online that the Buffalo gunman had been motivated by the “great replacement,” a far-right conspiracy theory that nonwhite people are being brought into western countries to “replace” white voters. 

Outcome 

Disinformation incites aggression against the LGBTQ community

Sabrina, who requested her last name be omitted for safety, told The AP that Twitter users harassed her and accused her of being the shooter. “This whole ordeal is just horrifying,” she said. 

Sam, another transgender woman, was also accused of being the gunman after a photo of her from Reddit circulated online. “It’s not me, I don’t even live in Texas,” Sam wrote in a Reddit post. 

Alex Kaplan, a senior researcher at Media Matters, said targeted attacks against the transgender community come at a time when “there has been this … anti LGBTQ campaign to basically claim that … gay people or teachers are ‘grooming’ children, or that transgender people are targeting children.” 

According to NPR, the claim that the Uvalde shooter was transgender created widespread alarm that it could presage a wave of violence against LGBTQ individuals. 

Jaden Janak, a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas and a junior fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies, spoke further on the villainization of transgender individuals. “These children and adults who were murdered yesterday were just living their lives. They didn’t know that yesterday was going to be their last day. And similarly, as trans people, that’s a fear we have all the time,” Janek said. 

Republican congressman from Arizona tweets false claims 

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar (R), who in the past has prided himself as being the most conservative member of Congress, posted a tweet regarding the gunman’s alleged identity. 

“We know already fool. It’s a transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos. It’s apparently your kind of trash,” Gosar wrote. The tweet has since been deleted.

Researchers examine motives behind the perpetuation of conspiracy theories

Experts continue to study the phenomenon of disinformation spreading across social media, especially with regard to the alleged motives of the shooter. 

According to The AP, followers of such conspiracy theories could include well-intentioned users who believe they are dispersing verified facts, opportunistic people who advertise disinformation to draw attention to themselves or their website, and “trolls” who seemingly sow disinformation for fun. 

“It is very intentional and deliberate for them in celebrating these types of incidents to also influence what the mainstream conversations actually are,” Ben Decker, founder and CEO of Memetica, a digital investigations consultancy, said. 

Decker reasoned that conspiracy theorists have a “nihilistic desire to prove oneself” in their communities “by successfully trolling the public. So if you are able to spearhead a campaign that leads to an outcome like this, you’re gaining increased sort of in-group credibility.” 

Sara Aniano, an extremism researcher who focuses on the rhetoric of the far-right on social media, said disinformation spreading around traumatic events offers a “worst case scenario” for society. 

“Without a manifesto and a known motive, the speculation is just going to get worse and worse as to what drove the shooter to do it. But it also provides a really fertile ground for more conspiracy theories to sort of accumulate and spread in the information ecosystem,” Aniano said.

DHS warns that spread of conspiracy theories may lead to “copycat” crimes 

On June 7, 2022, DHS stated that online actors spreading disinformation about the Uvalde shooting were calling for copycat attacks “against minority communities, schools, houses of worship, and mass transit.” The agency labeled the situation a “dynamic and complex” threat environment for the United States. 

“Others have seized on the event to attempt to spread disinformation and incite grievances, including claims [the Uvalde shooting] was a government-staged event meant to advance gun control measures,” the DHS wrote.

The DHS also noted some extremists had and would likely continue to use issues related to the United States-Mexico border to incite violence, assessing an “increased risk of domestic violent extremists using changes in border security-related policies and/or enforcement mechanisms to justify violence against individuals, such as minorities and law enforcement officials involved in the enforcement of border security.”