Twitter has, on certain occasions, been accused of bandwagon disinformation. However, on June 1st, 2020, a handful of fake and hacked accounts abused this behavior to cause mass chaos in DC. This is the story of #dcblackout.
On twitter, a handful of fake accounts all tweeted out the image above with the #dcblackout and claiming that the government was blocking internet signals in the area of DC in order to cover for the use of brutal tactics. During the time, there were protests occurring near the White House, and the story was retweeted by many. By the time many news organizations corrected the fake story, "A coordinated network of hacked accounts then began tweeting about how the hashtag was faked and that people don't need to panic..." claims Martin Austermuhle, who reported on the incident.
The hacked accounts lead others to thinking that the government had sent the messages out in order to try and pacify the public, further adding confusion and seemingly validating the first, fake story.
Ultimately, Twitter was used to divide the public and promote distrusts between the people and the government.
[3 images, 1 link, 1 quotation, 107 words].
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