Thread: The debunked claim that servers run by Dominion Voting Systems were seized in Germany is making the rounds again.
So I'm going to explain where this claim originated from and how it devolved into its current incarnation. dailydot.com/debug/us-army-…
The claim appears to have originated in the form of a garbled German screenshot posted to Twitter that claimed the U.S. Army had raided Scytl, a Spanish election technology company, at their offices in Frankfurt.
(Translation on the right)
The screenshot made its way to Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tx.) several days later, who referenced the tweet during a Zoom call and during an interview on Newsmax.
Gohmert admitted that he didn't actually know whether the tweet was true.
For starters, Scytl doesn't have offices in Frankfurt and is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. The claim from the get-go fails to get even the most basic facts correct.
The U.S. Army also called the allegations of a raid in Germany totally false.
Rep. Gohmert's (R-Tx.) reference to the German tweet was then echoed by former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos on Twitter.
Except Papadopoulos incorrectly said that Gohmert had mentioned Dominion when he had actually mentioned Scytl.
Unsurprisingly, not long after, the two conspiracies were combined online and the story suddenly became that Scytl and Dominion were actually the same company.
Scytl and Dominion are not the same company and have no ties.
The false claim has since made its way to Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who told Newsmax that votes were counted on servers in "Barcelona" or "Frankfurt."
Note that the original claim never mentioned Barcelona. She added that in herself.
Think about how crazy it is that this entire story originated from a screenshot on Twitter of poorly-worded German text that was not only filled with spelling errors but major factual errors as well.
From a random Twitter account to the White House in a matter of days.
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An interesting point brought up by @ZTPetrizzo - The account that tweeted out photos of the Burkman raid was created last month and had zero previous tweets.
Given Burkman and Wohl's tracks record, I'd be a bit skeptical until the FBI confirms the raid. dailydot.com/debug/jack-bur…
A password reset attempt for the Twitter account that first tweeted out the photos of the alleged FBI raid on Jack Burkman shows that the account was created with the email ja*******@g****.***
A Virginia man tells the Daily Beast that he participated in the 'raid' after responding to a Craigslist ad seeking actors to play FBI agents for a television pilot.
In other words, the raid was staged by Burkman and Wohl.
I was able to confirm that some users were seeing his last tweet as being from 2017, while others could see his actual latest tweet from May of this year.
Conspiracy theorists also alleged that the picture of a shoe on Hanks' account was evidence of child trafficking.
I reached out to Twitter multiple times to ask why some users were not seeing 3 years' worth of his tweets while others were.
Twitter is looking into the matter but has yet to reply. It's unclear if this issue was present with any other accounts as well.
Did Anonymous hack the Chicago Police Department's radio to play N.W.A.'s "Fuck Tha Police?"
I looked into the viral claim. There is no evidence anyone claiming affiliation with Anonymous was involved. dailydot.com/debug/anonymou… via @dailydot
This shows the location data of phones that were on a Florida beach during Spring Break. It then shows where those phones traveled.
First thing you should note is the importance of social distancing. The second is how much data your phone gives off.
This kind of data is obviously incredibly useful and has a wide-range of applications. But while the data used is "anonymized," meaning it is not linked to the phone's owner, researchers have found that it is incredibly easy to link the two.
I've gone down a black hole of the latest DeepFakes and this mashup of Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Lawrence is a sight to behold
Speaking of DeepFakes, lawmakers are currently sounding the alarm over concerns that such techniques will be used during the 2020 election cnn.com/2019/01/28/tec…
Many feel the issue is more hype than substance though. People already believe in outlandish conspiracies based on far, far less. This take feels pretty spot on: