7 days from fringe to mainstream: How a conspiracy theory ricocheted around the web

Jefferson Graham | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Surviving student: 'This is not acceptable!' David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School recorded video of his barricaded classmates during Wednesday's massacre in Parkland, Fla. One day later, he said, "this is completely unacceptable."

LOS ANGELES — Just days after a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school, conspiracy theorists were able to spin and then spread a demonstrably false tale on social media so that it dominated Internet searches and "trending" tabs.

The story — that some of the survivors of the high school massacre were actually so-called crisis actors — became so virulent that the teens had to share photos from their high school year-book to prove they were, in fact, the students whose classmates were killed.

How did it go so far, so fast?

A review of some of the most widely shared videos, tweets and Facebook posts show the widely debunked theory germinating on sites with a track record of casting doubt on the veracity of national tragedies. Pundits from these sites amplified the theory on Twitter. An edited video clip, purporting to prove one teen was a sham, made the rounds on some Facebook Group pages.

Once relegated to the dark, rumor-filled corners of the Internet, conspiracy theorists have learned to game the digital ecosystem, taking advantage of the viral nature of social media and the lack of gatekeepers to funnel groundless, inflammatory claims into the mainstream. The giants of the Web —Twitter, Google-owned YouTube and Facebook — each play a critical role in helping these claims gain credence and an audience.

When a big news story breaks, the object of conspiracy theorists is to "obfuscate the news, because they can't defeat the story with facts," says Jamie Cohen, director of the New Media Program at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, N.Y. They "create a second point of view and it becomes news."

To do that, they exploit social networks. Streaming and syndicated radio is also a common tool, helping conspiracy theories jump from the fringes to mainstream talking points.

Eventually the tech companies whose platforms had circulated the false theory removed some of the most popular videos. But by then, some of the students' names were indelibly linked with the false contention they were lying about their identities. And the media was reporting on the new narrative, which had been spun by twisting the story through social media.

More: The conspiracy theory about Florida shooting survivors that won't end: 'Enough is enough'

More: 'Crisis actors' YouTube video removed after it tops 'trending' videos

Wednesday February 14

At Parkland, Fla.'s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, former student Nikolas Cruz, 19, burst in shortly before 3 p.m. and killed 17 people. Cruz was arrested later that day.

Within hours of the shooting Wednesday, InfoWars host Alex Jones, who has suggested that past shootings such as the 2012 killings at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Conn. were a "hoax," floated the idea that much of what was being reported about the students was a "false flag," meaning that the students were pawns of gun-control advocates.

"Democrats have been caught in false flags before," he said on his streaming radio show, which is syndicated on radio stations.

At the same time, other accounts circulated doctored tweets and faked news article pages from Buzzfeed News and a Miami Herald reporter.

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

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Thursday, February 15

The theory took on a life of its own, mostly fanned at first through Twitter, the platform that has surpassed other online forums for getting a topic national attention, due to its visibility with so many politicians and journalists. It was also active on Reddit.

Beyond U.S. conspiracy theorists, the Russian influence operations that would be called out again the next day in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment got involved, adding momentum to the debate over gun control. Twitter accounts linked to Russian disinformation campaigns promoted some of the false stories, and terms including NRA and Florida were among the trending topics supported by those accounts, the blog for a tracker built by the Alliance for Securing Democracy said.

Earlier this week, Twitter suspended multiple accounts in an attempt to weed out bots, which are powered by automated software rather than people.

Sunday, February 18

Kambree Kawahine Koa‏, who describes herself as a "VP of Field Operations," for Healthy Habits Global out of Honolulu on her LinkedIn page, doubled down on Jones' initial twist, doubting the sincerity of the students and suggesting they were activists, not grievers. She received 3,700 retweets, 10,000 likes and 14,000 comments.

She followed the first tweet with one saying, "Democrats have planned this all. This is what they have done for decades. They think we are stupid in how they operate but actually them using children as pawns will BACKFIRE in Nov like it did in 2016. Game over."

Social media was particularly fertile ground in the days after the attack: as teen survivors expressed their outrage on Twitter and in television interviews, those comments were seized on by guns-rights proponents.

It’s quite interesting that the children survivors haven’t even buried their friends, grieve, get over shock but have had the time to plan for a march, come up with a creative hashtag, get their story to all media outlets all in such a short amount time..... #MarchForOurLives — Kambree Kawahine Koa (@KamVTV) February 18, 2018

Monday, February 19

CNN commentator and former Georgia congressman Jack Kingston tweeted a USA TODAY article about how students were planning to stage a rally to protest gun laws. He questioned whether gun control activists were "using 17yr kids in the wake of a horrible tragedy?"

O really? “Students” are planning a nationwide rally? Not left wing gun control activists using 17yr kids in the wake of a horrible tragedy? #Soros #Resistance #Antifa #DNC https://t.co/AmqH1ajMTo — Jack Kingston (@JackKingston) February 19, 2018

Gateway Pundit, a right-wing blog run by conservative activist Jim Hoft, posted a video that showed student David Hogg stumbling through an interview and suggested he was being fed lines to attack President Donald Trump. The blog was written by the Pundit's Lucian Wintrich, who has nearly 50,000 followers.

"EXPOSED: School Shooting Survivor Turned Activist David Hogg's Father in FBI, Appears To Have Been Coached On Anti-Trump Lines," read the headline.

President Trump's son Donald Trump, Jr. liked a link to the post on Twitter.

EXPOSED: School Shooting Surviver Turned Activist David Hogg's Father in FBI, Appears To Have Been Coached On Anti-Trump Lines [VIDEO] https://t.co/niQVRK2CmW — Lucian B. Wintrich (@lucianwintrich) February 19, 2018

Jim - could you please return to attacking me (or really any grownup) instead of the courageous #Parkland students? Thank you. https://t.co/t8ngiLllS6 — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 20, 2018

Tuesday, February 20

Jones was back at it, with a report on his website that said it found footage of a KCBS-TV Los Angeles TV news appearance in 2017 by Hogg in California, where he was visiting a friend. This suggested to the theorists that Hogg was indeed an imposter, a California actor working the tragedy for political gains.

Hogg denied this. A new term was coined to refer to the students: "crisis actors."

The InfoWars article was shared over 50,000 times on Facebook.

A YouTube user known as Mike M. put together a video based on the InfoWars post, referring to student Hogg as an actor, someone who has been "bought and paid by CNN and George Soros," according to tech website Motherboard, which watched the since- deleted video.

Another video attacking Hogg appeared on Facebook and attracted 133,000 views. This one was posted by The New Revolution II, a group that says it stands for rejecting liberalism, socialism, communism, Islamism and tyranny.

The video suggested that Hogg was coached in his answers by CNN, with the title "Exposed: School Shooting Survivor son of FBI agent." This was a signal to Trump supporters that Hogg is not to be trusted, because the president has been feuding with the FBI over the investigation into Russia ties to the Trump 2016 campaign. The group has 142,000 likes on Facebook, and the post was shared 4,000 times.

A reporter for the Tampa Bay Times received an e-mail from an aide to Republican Florida state representative Shawn Harrison suggesting that the students were indeed paid actors. When Tampa Bay reporter Alex Leary wrote back to ask for clarification, he was sent a link to a "YouTube conspiracy video," Leary reported on his Twitter feed. The aide was later fired.

Here's the email. I asked for more information to back up the claim and was sent another email that linked to a YouTube conspiracy video. pic.twitter.com/VRSVOcjj3E — Alex Leary (@learyreports) February 20, 2018

Claiming some of the students on tv after #Parkland are actors is the work of a disgusting group of idiots with no sense of decency — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 20, 2018

Wednesday, February 21

By Wednesday, the YouTube user known as Mike M.'s post of the Alex Jones video, which had been re-posted by many others, found its way to the top trending clip on YouTube. This was a re-edit of the KCBS-TV Los Angeles video featuring Hogg.

Mike M's YouTube video had become the No. 1 trending video on the Google-owned video network. Trending is where users can check out the most popular videos on YouTube.

YouTube apologized and removed the Mike M. video, saying it violated its policies. By that time, it had over 200,000 views.

On Facebook, David Hogg, became a trending topic. Along with videos debunking the theory, it also included several from pages claiming to expose Hogg as a faux student.

Facebook responded by saying it would remove the content. Facebook's Mary deBree, head of content policy, said the posts were "abhorrent."

The Parkland students, just as adept at social media, used their own means to throw cold water on the hoax.

"Okay, you caught me. I'm a Crisis Actor brainwashed by the left. They chose me because I played Iago, Mr. Potato Head, and King Triton in camp musicals as a kid," wrote Stoneman Douglas student Adam Alhanti on Twitter.

And the reaction didn't end there. Jones, whose shows got the theory going, said on his YouTube channel Friday that he planned on suing YouTube if it removed his channel from the network. He had received one strike for posting the original video that suggested Hogg was an actor, and the network has a three strikes policy before deleting a channel.

With Iago being the highlight by far https://t.co/OSVAl3AIvn — Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) February 21, 2018

Hey @cameron_kasky look what I just found in my yearbook from 10th grade 😂 pic.twitter.com/3dXJfvUlmE — David Hogg (@davidhogg111) February 22, 2018

Follow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham on Twitter, @jeffersongraham