For Millennials. By Millennials.
As riots continue over George Floyd’s death all across the United States, the angry mob has now made their way towards Washington DC and the White House. Amidst all this, there is a spread of misinformation to create panic and incite further anger in the crowd. Twitter users report that they heard an explosion in the city, possibly a bombing. As social media started investigating the issue, some declared that Twitter was actually hiding the incident, whereas some claimed that the government had downed the Internet in DC to make room for an operation against protestors. Hence, the hashtag ‘DC Blackout’ started trending.
https://twitter.com/NewsJunky72/status/1267471428795981824
Was There A DC Blackout?
As riots in the federal capital Washington DC continue for the third consecutive night, mobs of protestors rioting over George Floyd’s death made their way towards the White House. Some also gathered at nearby St. John’s Church where arsonists set fire. As police popped smoke and cracked fireworks towards the rioters some users on Twitter reported that they heard an explosion, after which their internet and phone services went down in DC.
https://twitter.com/evphoriagguk/status/1267463668591202307
https://twitter.com/tcmlinsun/status/1267494428115120136
https://twitter.com/Little_blueBox2/status/1267490393001799684
As panic gripped people #DCBlackout started to trend on Twitter for quite some time. Reports and broken videos suggested that a massive police crackdown was taking place after the government shut down all internet and phone services. In retaliation, fires were lit near the Washington Monument and the entire DC National Guard was called to take over.
https://twitter.com/JaylaBow/status/1267481744644677636
We demand all prisoners are released and their safety guaranteed.
As the day goes on, we'll find out more about the events in D.C. from the protestors themselves and we ask everyone to avoid spreading fear as that is the goal of the Trump regime and the bots in #DCblackout.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) June 1, 2020
The agitated masses continue to blame Twitter for deleting evidence that something is going on inside Washington DC as DC Blackout trends. However, there are some of those who believe that the reason is a bit different.
We are investigating #DCblackout. We suspect it is misinformation spread by a botnet using BLM IDs and KPop / Anime profiles in order to incite panic and confusion. We are now using #DCsafe to study these accounts.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) June 1, 2020
The Tweet comes from the supporters of the hacktivist group, Anonymous, who recently resurfaced to expose Donald Trump and support the Black Lives Matter movement. They further added:
Update: The bots have adjusted their misinformation campaign on #DCblackout to pretend that there is a bot campaign copy and pasting an "everything is fine" script to push the narrative that everything is not fine and create mass confusion and spread fear. pic.twitter.com/bu4uNL8Pwx
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) June 1, 2020
In conclusion, there is widespread misinformation all to either anger the crowd even further or force the police to escalate the response. One of the recent issues that have come to light is of setting fire to the possessions of a homeless man in Austin. Take a look:
Fuck INFOWARS for burning a homeless man's possessions to get some views. Fucking LOW. We catch you fuck'n with the homeless, we are going to trow down. #ProtectTheHomeless https://t.co/LlWXhSJqsE
— Indigenous Anarchist Federation (@IAF__FAI) June 1, 2020