Spread of images, disinformation focus of domestic terror hearing
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Jun. 9—During a hearing on domestic extremism Thursday morning, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan asked witnesses about how violent imagery and conspiracy theories spread to inspire other attacks, and misdirect law enforcement.
Hassan termed the mass shooting that killed 10 in a Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket last month a "domestic terrorist attack." The attack was live-streamed online by the alleged shooter — which Elizabeth Yates, a senior antisemitism researcher at Human Rights First, said was common as a way for attackers to gain notoriety in their online communities.
Yates said technology and social media companies have tools to take down these videos, even if streamers make subtle edits in hopes of getting around digital fences. But Yates said companies don't share detailed information and tools with each other to keep such content from spreading. Hassan asked Yates to follow up with her office about what more could be done.
The spread of information was also the focus of Michael German, fellow of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, when Hassan asked him about how the Department of Homeland Security allocates resources to deal with domestic extremism and terrorism.
German said intelligence produced and distributed by the Department of Homeland Security isn't always accurate, and can lead to law enforcement allocating resources to threats that don't exist.
"We see that repeatedly where disinformation — often taken right out of the right wing social media — is put on an official law enforcement intelligence document and put out." For example, German said, a false rumor that left-wing activists as part of the so-called "antifa" movement started wildfires in Western states in 2020. That wasn't true, German said, but some law enforcement agencies pursued that avenue because the information was pushed out through the Department of Homeland Security.
"All of a sudden a piece of disinformation is becomes a large thing that resources have to be devoted to," German said.
