AMITT/incidents/I00010.md

Incident I00010: ParklandTeens

• Summary: IRA trolls amplified the far right messaging around the attack. Most notably they amplified social media speculation that many of the teens involved were “crisis actors” nefariously injected into the conversation by outside actors with an anti-gun poltical agenda. Other amplifications included ongoing harassment of survivors and claims that the event is a hoax from the right; and fatalist cynicism about gun reform from the left.

• incident type: incident

• Year started: 2018

• Countries: Unknown , USA

• Found via:

• Date added: 2019-02-01

Technique	Description given for this incident
T0007 Create fake Social Media Profiles / Pages / Groups	IT00000045 FB pages/groups/profiles
T0010 Cultivate ignorant agents	IT00000044 cultivate, manipulate, exploit useful idiots (Alex Jones... drives conspiracy theories; false flags, crisis actors)
T0020 Trial content	IT00000048 4Chan/8Chan - trial content
T0031 YouTube	IT00000046 YouTube; Reddit
T0032 Reddit	IT00000047 YouTube; Reddit
T0039 Bait legitimate influencers	IT00000049 journalist/media baiting
T0046 Search Engine Optimization	IT00000043 SEO optimisation/manipulation ("key words")
T0053 Twitter trolls amplify and manipulate	IT00000042 Twitter trolls amplify & manipulate
T0054 Twitter bots amplify	IT00000041 Twitter bots amplify & manipulate

DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE - PLEASE ADD NOTES BELOW

Actors: IRA, Alex Jones, far right and far left trolls

Timeframe: Ongoing

Date: February 2018

Presumed goals: Divide the American public on the issues of guns, race, generational politics and activism

Method: Amplification via sockpuppet and cyborg accounts

Counters: None / Media exposure

Related incidents:

• Sandy Hook hoaxers / Sandy Hook fatalists

References

• How Russian trolls exploited Parkland mass shooting on social media
• PRO-GUN RUSSIAN BOTS FLOOD TWITTER AFTER PARKLAND SHOOTING
• Russian trolls flood Twitter after Parkland shooting
• Russian Trolls Are Tweeting Propaganda After Stoneman Shooting

Details

Following the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead, an army of human-controlled and automated accounts spread related content across Twitter.

Hamilton 68, a website created by Alliance for Securing Democracy, tracks Twitter activity from accounts it has identified as linked to Russian influence campaigns. As of morning, shooting-related terms dominated the site’s trending hashtags and topics, including Parkland, guncontrolnow, Florida, guncontrol, and Nikolas Cruz, the name of the alleged shooter. Popular trending topics among the bot network include shooter, NRA, shooting, Nikolas, Florida, and teacher.

According to the German Marshall Fund, which tracks Russian-linked Twitter activity, the following are some of the more popular narratives, themes and articles. The 'crisis actor' conspiracy 'False flag' and other conspiracy hashtags Meanwhile, some accounts with large bot followings are already spreading misinformation about the shooter's ties to far-left group Antifa, even though the Associated Press reported that he was a member of a local white nationalist group. One theory associated with these hashtags is that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was targeted because the school’s namesake was opposed to "draining the swamp" of the Florida Everglades. Under this theory, the Parkland shooting was a cryptic message to Trump, who vowed during his campaign to "drain the swamp" in Washington by hollowing out its infrastructure of career politicians, insiders and influence peddlers. Sowing discord Experts say the goal of Russian troll propagandists isn't to sway people's opinions in one way or another. Instead, the accounts seek to exploit divisions in order to break down society into smaller, warring groups. Trolls drum up persona accounts on every side of the ideological spectrum and take advantage of high-impact events to spread confusion and disarray. In particular, they're able to take advantage of how Twitter doesn't require users to verify their identity. Russian accounts boosted erroneous content concerning the motives of the alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz. According to the German Marshall Fund, one of the top links shared by Russia-linked accounts in the aftermath of the shooting was our 2014 article that largely debunked a statistic cited by pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. A survey of tweets using the top hashtags flagged by the Hamilton 68 dashboard showed tweets adamantly in favor of gun control and saying the NRA had taken "blood money." Other tweets attacked liberals, the media and lawmakers. Another top link shared by the network covers the “deranged” Instagram account of the shooter, showing images of him holding guns and knives, wearing army hats, and a screenshot of a Google search of the phrase “Allahu Akbar.” Characterizing shooters as deranged lone wolves with potential terrorist connections is a popular strategy of pro-gun groups because of the implication that new gun laws could not have prevented their actions. The use of pro-gun control hashtags like #guncontrolnow, along with the spread of anti-gun control links like the Politifact article, appear at first to show the Russian strategy of promoting discord on both sides of a debate. In other cases, the bots jump on existing hashtags to take control of the conversation and amplify a message. That’s likely what is happening with the Parkland shooting and the hashtag guncontrolnow. Public awareness that antagonistic bots flood the Twitter debate hasn’t stopped them from achieving their goals of ratcheting up the vitriol—even amid a live tragedy like the Parkland shooting. The goal, after all, isn't to help one side or the other of the gun control debate win. It's to amplify the loudest voices in that fight, deepening the divisions between us.

Examples