Hundreds of Armed US Counter-Protesters Fall for 'Apparent Hoax'

Yesterday as America celebrated its Independence Day, the Washington Post reports something unusual happened at the historic Civil War battefield at Gettysburg: For weeks, a mysterious figure on social media talked up plans for antifa protesters to converge on this historical site on Independence Day to burn American flags, an event that seemed at times to border on the farcical... There would be antifa face paint, the person wrote, and organizers would "be giving away free small flags to children to safely throw into the fire." As word spread, self-proclaimed militias, bikers, skinheads and far-right groups from outside the state issued a call to action, pledging in online videos and posts to come to Gettysburg to protect the Civil War monuments and the nation's flag from desecration. Some said they would bring firearms and use force if necessary. On Saturday afternoon, in the hours before the flag burning was to start, they flooded in by the hundreds — heavily armed and unaware, it seemed, that the mysterious Internet poster was not who the person claimed to be. [Alternate URLs here and here.] Biographical details — some from the person's Facebook page and others provided to The Washington Post in a series of messages — did not match official records. An image the person once posted on a profile page was a picture of a man taken by a German photographer for a stock photo service... The episode at Gettysburg is a stark illustration of how shadowy figures on social media have stoked fears about the protests against racial injustice and excessive police force... Armed vigilantes lined the streets of small Idaho towns last month after false claims circulated online about antifa... Similar hoaxes have befallen towns in New Jersey, South Dakota and Michigan in recent weeks. It is not always clear who has made these false claims and why, whether they seek to advance a political agenda, antagonize people with whom they disagree or achieve some other goal. Social media companies have in recent weeks shut down a handful of fake accounts created by white supremacist groups posing as antifa operatives in a bid to undermine peaceful protests. The Post reached Twitter and Facebook, who shut down the accounts last week, "saying the person behind them had manipulated the platform by creating multiple accounts with overlapping content in an effort to amplify their messaging." But by then the counter-protests had already attracted hundreds of supporters. "An official at Facebook said the person appeared to be operating the accounts from inside the United States."

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