There Is A Lot Of Misinformation, Misleading Footage, DELIBERATE Infiltration, And Scams Online During

there is a lot of misinformation, misleading footage, DELIBERATE infiltration, and scams online during these protests. please please PLEASE be extremely careful before you reblog or retweet. i work in the news (but i also think all cops are bastards), if you have a question, feel free to ask. there are even white supremacist 4chan civil war 2 baiting people. be VERY VERY careful. be careful of the bullshit tropes police departments and city mayors will feed and local news will regurgitate. be careful of screenshots of random stan twitter accounts claiming things to scare people. be careful of random accounts of organizations you don’t know.

here’s a few things to look out for

1) right now, a common signal to the white supremacist crowd is the boogaloo meme. aka the “break 2: electric boogaloo” meme is code for “civil war 2: electric boogaloo”. they use iconography of words that SOUND like boogaloo (”big luau” and “igloo”) to signal to each other, EVEN when they look like they’re supporting BLM. if you see hawaiian print or an igloo, it’s a nazi.

2) twitter accounts or screenshots of twitter accounts that claim to be “updates” or “breaking news” from sources you’ve never heard of. i work in mainstream media, but i also don’t trust it, so i get not trusting it. however accounts like these are common sockpuppets for russian bots, law enforcement infiltration, and more. sometimes, they don’t even try too hard to cover their tracks. they often embed real news videos for retweets and follows, the accounts aren’t very old, and they have weird, or keyword-laden names to end up in searches like BLM PROTESTS JUSTICE NOW NEWS.

3) mainstream news, especially TV news and local news stations, love to just regurgitate a police press release or press conference about a case, or the mayor’s speech or press conference, as fact. they may report more in depth later, but the first point of contact is always deference to the police. they are then copied and syndicated by other news outlets, so the mistakes are multiplied. take everything they say with a grain of salt, knowing it came straight out of the police commissioner’s mouth.

4) if you couldn’t attend a protest, or want to help further, many local organizations suddenly thrust into the spotlight get flooded with support and often recommend other organizations. wait about 24 hours. research before you donate. support locally. you want to make sure things are both legit and that they are also still accepting or needing assistance (information changes quickly).