Yesterday’s horrible Amtrak derailment on a track outside of Tacoma, Washington resulted in the death of at least 3 people, with over 70 people injured. At least ten of those who were injured are still in serious condition today, and at least one was medivacked to a trauma center in Seattle.
While it may take weeks to get the full report, news today is that the train was going 80 mph in a section of the track that was marked for 30 mph. The slower speed was to prepare for a bend in the track ahead.
Whether the cause for the increased speed was operator error or some mechanical malfunction is one of those questions we’ll have to wait on the answers to.
Whatever the case, the conspiracy theorists – Russian bot accounts and mindless purveyors of “fake news” – were out in force, cooking up social media tales designed to exacerbate the masses.
The good folks over at Reagan Battalion were on the case, and actually mapped out the birth and evolution of this particular conspiracy theory.
It begins with the notion that Antifa poured concrete on the tracks, in a deliberate attempt to create mayhem.
And the conspiracy crazies are already active. https://t.co/ni93icHV5a
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
I’ll say right here that I have no doubt that the sniveling scumbags that call themselves Antifa are capable of such an act. I just don’t think they’re the boogeyman that should get to carry the blame/credit for everything.
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
I’ll also say the motives for blaming Antifa for everything need to be explored, as well.
The motives sound so innocent. Just asking a question, right?
🚩
“Possibly the source” https://t.co/Bsedg0pP33
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
Details are being added to story, true facts mixed with fiction. 🚩 https://t.co/VcaNU2OjF5
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
They pointed out (rightly) how these Russian bot farms work, taking advantage of any tragedy, finding a scapegoat, and then working up the faithful, in order to heighten tension among citizens.
As you can see, it’s a campaign, pushing everything in the same direction, with no real proof. In fact, at the time the campaign began, there wasn’t much to go on for anybody, other than the fact that a train had derailed.
Fake sites set up, Google images presented as evidence, in effort to spread conspiracy. 🚩 https://t.co/OKoYtDvYV0
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
Trying to get Antifa and Train derailment to trend together. 🚩 https://t.co/zk7V0r6Vcw
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
“The Antifa”
Bot or non English speaker. 🚩 https://t.co/lV21Kn8wn0
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
It was a concerted effort to connect Antifa and the train derailment linked on social media.
And then there were those who can’t help themselves. Their bread and butter is aiding in conspiracy theories and chaos.
As always, Posobiec is more than willing to help out in the effort. 🚩 https://t.co/IxQd7EPrCs
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
As you can imagine, @Cernovich is already helping out spreading this conspiracy theory. https://t.co/mMHCNZmK38
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
And then there was this article on one of those FAKE NEWS sites, and OH, how quickly did they leap to spread it around!
ALERT🚨 Bot operation activated. 🚩 pic.twitter.com/k8Bt8zjPKt
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
.@PS80910
Only has a single tweet, the brand new conspiracy theory about the Amtrak derailment.
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
For some reason, the original accounts that were tweeting were axed. Kind of like what happens when Twitter finds out an account is fake, or in recent months, linked to the Kremlin.
Original Antifa Account was a fake.
(Not at all trying to whitewash Antifa, they are bad) but facts matter. https://t.co/yH07WQyfNj
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
The folks at Reagan Battalion were soon overwhelmed, as the accounts pushing the Antifa-derailment conspiracy soon exploded into the 1,000s. You definitely need a team to keep up with the chaos work being perpetrated by the Russian bot farms.
Bot operation #2 activated.
By now there are 1000’s of accounts tweeting about the Amtrak Derailment conspiracy theory.
When we started tracking this at 1:13 PM, a little more than an hour ago, only a handful of fringe accounts were tweeting about this. pic.twitter.com/S9IuBU7Ns9
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 18, 2017
And no, it doesn’t help when we have people here willing to help them out.
There is a true effort to spread misinformation through social media, to make Americans suspicious of their neighbors, and to keep us looking away from the real culprits.
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