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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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From: tejek4/30/2015 1:03:02 PM
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Internet Racists Are Pretending to Be Black Looters in Baltimore


6,849


Sam Biddle
Filed to: baltimore





    For every human tragedy offline, there will inevitably be a group of dedicated fuckers trying to make it worse using the internet. Today’s example is the #BaltimoreLootCrew, spreading white supremacist bile and misinformation about the Freddie Gray protests.

    Internet racists have long enjoyed using out-of-context and wholly unrelated photos to demonize black people during emergency conditions—the pastime dates back to at least to Hurricane Katrina. But as Motherboard points out, Twitter has made it easier than ever to quickly and efficiently spread toxic bigotry to the credulous and uninformed.

    If you look at the #BaltimoreLootCrew hashtag, you’ll see what looks like Baltimore residents—all black—bragging about things they’ve stolen during this week’s civil unrest. But none of these photos are real. Instead, it’s the work of 8chan-affiliated white supremacists, bubbling over the sort of message board fecal matter that would’ve been confined to /b/ in the era before social media. Those were the days! Now, malicious falsehoods have been democratized.





    These Are the Creepy 4Chan Successors Behind Gamergate's Pathetic War Both the amorphous anti-feminist movement Gamergate and last month's extended leak of a huge… Read more



    This image of purportedly stolen medicine is actually at least three years old:

    [iframe height="713" title="Twitter Timeline" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" id="twitter-widget-0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; border: currentColor; width: 500px; display: block; visibility: visible; position: static; min-width: 220px; max-width: 100%;" allowtransparency="true"][/iframe]

    This shot is actually from a group of Brits in 2011:

    [iframe height="502" title="Twitter Timeline" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" id="twitter-widget-1" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; border: currentColor; width: 500px; display: block; visibility: visible; position: static; min-width: 220px; max-width: 100%;" allowtransparency="true"][/iframe]

    This shot of a menacing Baltimore looter is actually of some kid from Memphis:

    [iframe height="808" title="Twitter Timeline" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" id="twitter-widget-2" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; border: currentColor; width: 500px; display: block; visibility: visible; position: static; min-width: 220px; max-width: 100%;" allowtransparency="true"][/iframe]

    The line “Fuck yeah! I can’t wait to start playin me some Bloodborne!” should be an obvious tip-off that this isn’t real, but the photo also predates the riots in Baltimore.

    [iframe height="537" title="Twitter Timeline" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" id="twitter-widget-3" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; border: currentColor; width: 500px; display: block; visibility: visible; position: static; min-width: 220px; max-width: 100%;" allowtransparency="true"][/iframe]

    And so on.

    It’d be easy to brush all this aside as horrible Chan-culture bullshit, but there are people who think this is real and representative. This Medium post rounded up several examples of people who’ve notified law enforcement about these fictional looters, or expressed general dismay.





    Reddit Is So Racist White Supremacists Are Using it to Recruit Racism and general human toxicity have become more than a niche on Reddit: the site has made a name … Read more





    Between this, “the Purge,” and the NRA, it’s been a bad week for both Baltimore and reality.










    Eyewitnesses: The Baltimore riots didn't start the way you think Baltimore teachers and parents tell a different story from the one you've been reading in the… Read more motherjones.?com



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