Thread by @MollyMcKew

There have been some weird information patterns on social since Pensacola attack

One is around story of "missing Saudi students" from Pensacola.

FACTCHECK: (from @DavidBegnaud who is covering Pensacola): The FBI said, as of 11amET Sunday, ALL SAUDI TRAINEES ARE ACCOUNTED FOR /1

Below I will add some detail on why I started watching this odd story.

But first, you can watch @DavidBegnaud's reporting on Pensacola here: /2

https://twitter.com/cbsthismorning/status/1204011484524826625?s=21

I became concerned about the "missing Saudis" story because I had seen mention to it but no solid sourcing.

Then last night this happened, linking to one of the stories I viewed as an unreliable source, so I felt it was important to check: /3

https://twitter.com/mollymckew/status/1203870244537819136?s=21

How did the story spread?

Shortly after the Friday shooting, there was an AP report that referenced other Saudi trainees being interviewed, several where unaccounted for. A copy of that story is here. /4

usnews.com/news/us/articl…

The "missing trainees" item obviously stuck out to many of us (missing Saudi aviation students, what could go wrong, right?)

I looked for updates over the weekend. I didn't see many /5

But the "missing Saudis" idea was cited, not using primary sourcing, in both a story in the daily mail and one on FoxNews /5

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7…

foxnews.com/us/missing-sau…

There were also these two stories, on sites that certainly look like the kind of "audience building" sites that are very useful for spreading disinformation/misinformation

"Lawenforcementtoday dot com" and "newsbreakinglive dot com" do not qualify as legit news sources to me /7

There was a LOT of alt-world, right-disruptor promotion of "missing Saudis" story using daily mail, fox, fakey mcgee site stories as links. Also zerohedge, famed Russia disinfo vehicle.

But there were also a lot of news personality types asking why this wasn't a story if true /8

This was also my question. Why was what would be a huge story only sourced to this small handful of things that seemed unreliable?

So I asked real reporters I know at 4 networks and 3 outlets/9

Thanks to @DavidBegnaud for being first to get back to me with the FBI confirmations.

But this was an interesting case study.

Reporters covering this story didn't necessarily know there was a false story spreading that they could easily shoot down because it was so isolated /10

People -- even smart people, even a US Senator -- were seeing the weird stories spread and wondering why it wasn't more of a story. This was amplified in some cases by uneasiness re POTUS behavior post-attack, explaining away Saudi behavior and downplaying whole deal /11

I would also note that this is not the only weird story spreading on Pensacola. The whole info environment on this post-attack is ... Weird. Odd. Off. I dunno. There's another layer coming

Please be alert and cautious when posting stories in major events. /12

This was a tough story to factcheck because no one specifically knew they needed to. But it isn't true.

(And @ChrisMurphyCT your post of this story has gotten 30k+ direct engagements, so please help pull it back/update. Thanks!) /13

https://twitter.com/chrismurphyct/status/1203851057228636161?s=21

The other thing about this: many of the right/Disinfo/not really news sites amplifying this started doing so AFTER the FBI specifically addressed this information and said the trainees were accounted for /14

After I posted this thread, these two sites now being used to post “missing Saudis” story on Twitter —
“Mind unleashed” and whatever this acronym is supposed to be /15

More reposters of provocations. Previous iterations still being posted with arm waving. /16

"true pundit" has written a new story citing 3 days old information that has been updated /17

Also don't love this, as headline that is completely false and funneling clicks using same not real story /18

Oh sheesh missed this one before. Sigh /19