On May 15, a troll campaign targeting journalists who report on the far-right was tweeted in a thread by Eoin Lenihan that was then amplified by right wing blogs & social media influencers. I graphed it.
User-to-user graph of 12,426 tweets mentioning @EoinLenihan May 6 to June 2
User-to-user graph of 12,426 tweets mentioning @EoinLenihan May 6 to June 2
Lenihan named several journalists & activists, included photos of their Twitter bios and a graph showing Twitter follower networks. He claimed the graph proved the journalists were collaborating in some nefarious way with antifascists. My May 18 debunk:
Between May 15 and May 29, various right wing blogs and social media influencers boosted Lenihan's thread. Then on May 29, Quillette gave Lenihan a byline and published an article he wrote about his tweets.
That same day May 29 Lenihan was suspended for violating rules against managing multiple Twitter accounts for abusive purposes. Ngo claimed, without any proof, that he was suspended due to mass reporting by "antifa’s Twitter mob" ignoring the actual reason for the suspension.
From May 29 to May 30, Andy Ngo, and Quillette promoted these false claims written by a troll posing as an "online extremism researcher" and of course it went viral. Ngo even retweeted his own tweets several times.
Then on May 31 an Atomwaffen-style video was uploaded to YouTube that showed the journalists in Lenihan's thread/graph as "Sunset The Media Top Finalists"
Until tonight, Quillette people claimed it didn't exist. It has thousands of views on various neo-nazi telegram channels.
Until tonight, Quillette people claimed it didn't exist. It has thousands of views on various neo-nazi telegram channels.
Andy Ngo did not write the article, but he and Quillette were instrumental in promoting its baseless claims against journalists who were then targeted by neo-nazis. Andy Ngo and Quillette were central nodes that spread lies and there were consequences for what they published.
