Thread by @conspirator0

In the aftermath of the #Gilroy garlic festival shooting, we tracked the various themes and narratives as they spread and morphed on Twitter. As is often the case, people rushing to post mis- and disinformation was not helpful.

cc: @ZellaQuixote

@ZellaQuixote Despite lack of information, people tweeted a variety of claims as events unfolded. Some examples:

- shooter's age (20s? 30s?)
- shooter was a Trump supporter
- shooting was racially motivated
- two shooters
- distraction from something more nefarious (#FalseFlag)

@ZellaQuixote The discovery of the shooter's apparent Instagram page fueled further speculation. References to "Might is Right" (which does promote Anglo-Saxon supremacy) was used to support claims of a white supremacist motive, while an Iranian flag was presented as evidence to the contrary.

@ZellaQuixote Like pretty every other act of mass violence, #FalseFlag speculation abounded (not just on Twitter - we found it on Reddit, 4chan, Voat, and various blogs.) Supposed perpetrators include CA Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris as well as the ever-popular deep state.

@ZellaQuixote On a darkly humorous note, a number of Twitter users reacted by complaining that Fox pre-empted the Mark Levin show to cover the shooting. Evidently a portion of Fox's audience becomes actively displeased when the network actually covers breaking news.

@ZellaQuixote As tends to happen with any topic that trends, various bots inserted non-sequitur references to the shooting into their tweets - everything from a probably well-intended climate-related automated account to the ever-present porn bots.