Florida school shooting hoax: doctored tweets and Russian bots spread false news

Mike Snider | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption The FBI may have known about Florida school shooter New reports reveal alleged south Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz was actually on the FBI’s radar, students joked he would quote “shoot up the school” one day, and his step-mom died of the flu.

The hours after the mass shooting at a Florida high school followed a now familiar trajectory on the Internet: Websites published hastily sourced conclusions about the shooter, and pranksters shared false photos of victims and the suspect.

But the aftermath of the killing of 17 in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday took a slightly different turn this time — one reporter's tweets were doctored and retweeted to make it appear she had been asking slanted questions. Another tweet making the rounds pretended to show a popular news website's article. It had been doctored, too.

These added to the more standard fabricated stories and hoaxes that have become a common occurrence in the wake of a national tragedy.

Miami Herald reporter Alex Harris, who was covering the shooting Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, had corresponded on Twitter with students at the school who were tweeting about what was happening while the shooter hadn't been apprehended. Some people criticized her for trying to communicate with the students when they were still in danger, an action she defended as essential to reporting — but acknowledges as a point of discussion.

Then there were the fake tweets. In at least two incidents, her tweets were altered to suggest she had asked students if they had photos or videos of dead bodies or knew whether the shooter was white.

When the faked tweet about asking whether the shooter was white circulated, “it hit a nerve,” and the blowback really intensified. The doctored tweet “is a pretty solid photoshopping job” that could have fooled her, she said.

That form of misinformation "is new," said Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the International Fact-Checking Network at The Poynter Institute. "For sure, this incident is qualitatively different."

BuzzFeed News also took to Twitter to debunk what it called a "hoax screenshot" of its site circulated on Twitter by the White House correspondent for the website Gateway Pundit. The faked report was headlined, "Why we need to take away white people's guns now more than ever."

Gateway Pundit circulating a hoax screenshot of BuzzFeed News reporting in aftermath of FL school shooting. Let me be clear, this is fake. pic.twitter.com/VNJuYPec0a — Jon Passantino (@passantino) February 15, 2018

Twitter accounts linked to Russian disinformation campaigns also promoted some of the false stories. "Parkland," the Florida city where the school is located, was among top trending hashtags pushed by a network of 600 Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence campaigns, according to the Alliance for Securing Democracy, part of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Other terms (NRA, shooting, Stoneman, Cruz, Nicolas and Florida) were among trending topics supported by those accounts, the site's blog said.

Hoaxes and rumors spread quickly in the aftermath of horrific incidents. Remerging Wednesday were posts naming as a suspect comedian Sam Hyde, whose photo has cropped up as the alleged shooter in previous incidents, including the 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting and the 2015 San Bernardino, Calif., terror attack. Some people posted photos of non-family members, falsely claiming they had a relative involved in the Florida shooting.

Many of these efforts are done simply "to sort of ride social media interest to prominence," Mantzarlis said. "Ever since Paris, this is our new normal. It's terrible, it's depressing and it's wrong, but it's unfortunately not surprising," he said, referring to the 2015 Paris terror attacks.

"Any time that there's a tragic event it quickly becomes politicized," said Andrew Selepak, a professor at the University of Florida and director of the graduate program specializing in social media.

More: Florida school shooting suspect charged with premeditated murder

More: Florida school shooting victims remembered as 'hero,' 'baby girl,' 'sweet angel'

Long before authorities identified the suspect as Nikolas Cruz about 7:30 p.m. ET Wednesday there were already stories on online news sites being passed along on social media about the suspect.

A story on the Gateway Pundit site reported the shooter was a registered Democrat, tying the political affiliation with an incorrect name. It later corrected it.

BREAKING: Don't Let The MAGA Hat Fool You, Hispanic Shooter "Nicolas de Jesus Cruz" Was A Registered @TheDemocrats https://t.co/w4PuGBJ7Al — Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) February 14, 2018

Hoaxes and rumors often originate on website forums 4Chan and Reddit, says Jane Lytvynenko, a BuzzFeed News reporter who has covered hoaxes in the wake of shootings, terror attacks and disasters.

"I immediately open Reddit or 4Chan, and it's a little bit harrowing to watch how these hoaxes that are made up on fairly-fringe websites make their way into the mainstream," she said.

Some of those posting misinformation want to trick reporters, while others seek to use a calamity to advance a political agenda, Lytvynenko said. Others may be seeking more followers. "It's a lot quicker to make something up than it is to report. We have to verify information with various sources. To fake something online is a 10-minute job."

More: Fake news: What it is and how to spot it

More: Conspiracy theories: Here's what drives people to them, no matter how wacky

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.