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NEW from me: I tracked how a false claim about Beto O'Rourke & the Odessa shooting spread across social media with the assist of bots, QAnon accounts, the Proud Boys, a TPUSA advisory council member, & current & former Trump administration & campaign staff
mediamatters.org/maga-trolls/ho…
mediamatters.org/maga-trolls/ho…
As both @conspirator0 & The Washington Post reported, the initial account that started this about O'Rourke spread in a suspicious manner that suggested a bot network. But besides that, some of the biggest amplifiers of the false claim on Twitter & Facebook were QAnon supporters.
@conspirator0 That includes a Facebook account whose meme pushing the false claim got tens of thousands of shares. The O'Rourke campaign specifically called out this post last night. 
@conspirator0 After the spread of the claim with the assist of QAnon accounts, Joel Fischer, a TPUSA advisory council member who has a history of pushing social media falsities, pushed the claim. The tweet went viral & was picked up by Sebastian Gorka & the Proud Boys on Telegram.
@conspirator0 The false claim was also picked up by Tony Shaffer, a member of Trump’s 2020 advisory board, who pushed the claim from the original account that started it (which has since been suspended). Schaffer doubled down when asked about the tweet by The Washington Post.
@conspirator0 One thing since this was published: the Twitter account that helped spread this false claim initially had its Twitter suspension reversed yesterday. So presumably its false tweet now continues to get more retweets as a result.
