Yes, the Russians are working hard to disrupt the 2020 U.S. elections and guide voters toward the result they want. So said American intelligence officials in a recent briefing to Congress. (1/12)
And what does this Russian election interference look like? (2/12)
Picture hundreds of Portlanders making a bonfire out of Bibles and American flags. (3/12)
The video that started a rolling viral outrage across mostly right-wing news platforms and social-media timelines shows a gaggle of young people in masks chanting anti-Trump slogans as one person lights aflame what looks like a graphic novel. (4/12)
Another masked individual then drops an American flag on top of it. Twigs and newspapers are later added to the fire. (5/12)
The video came from Ruptly, a Russian-government-backed news agency. (6/12)
“[T]he Portland Bible burnings appear to be one of the first viral Russian disinformation hits of the 2020 presidential campaign,” The New York Times reported Tuesday. (7/12)
The respected fact-checking website Snopes noted last week that it isn’t clear in the various relevant videos whether the items “being burned were, in fact, Bibles.” (8/12)
But it ultimately determined that one Bible did get torched that night, pointing to reporting by KOIN 6 reporter Danny Peterson. (9/12)
But that’s the thing about disinformation. (10/12)
It leverages social media to create a snowball effect, a mammoth virtual version of the children’s game Telephone. (11/12)
A Bible possibly is burned in a small fire, apparently with almost all of the protesters in the vicinity that night unaware of it, and online this quickly becomes a bonfire.
Read the full story: trib.al/akR7Oov (12/12)
Read the full story: trib.al/akR7Oov (12/12)
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