[News] The Internet Was a Mistake

Thursday’s highway standoff highlights the real life consequences of the wave of disinformation on social media about the cause of wildfires raging across the Pacific north-west. Many of the rumors baselessly claim that the fires were lit by political activists, either by the far-right group the Proud Boys or the leftist activists known as antifa.

Although there have been arrests for alleged arson amid the fires, authorities have vehemently denied political motivations. The majority of fires across Oregon and the west appear to have been sparked by power lines and other ignitions, and have exploded amid dry, hot and windy weather conditions in a landscape primed for fire because of drought.

Officials in Oregon have turned to Facebook to knock down the competing narratives, and the FBI has said it has investigated several claims and found them to be untrue. But the rumors have found fertile ground in a state already divided after months of protests. They are complicating the emergency response, including by motivating armed patrols in towns gripped by rumors of antifa arson attacks, and inspiring vigilante acts like the incident with Howard.

On the source of his assailants’ behavior, Howard said, “it has to be Facebook”, noting that in his own monitoring of Estacada Facebook groups during his reporting in the area, he had noticed the same rumors of antifa looters and arsonists that are still firehosing through similar pages throughout the west.

Posts made this week inside an Oregon-based private Facebook groups, and viewed by the Guardian, are indicative of the way that these rumors are forming a nexus between local communities, sometimes-violent protest groups, and even elected officials in rural areas.

On Wednesday evening, in Curry News and Views, a private Facebook group associated with far south-western Curry county, two GOP-aligned elected officials appeared to promote disinformation.

Christopher Paasch, a Curry county commissioner, had previously spread a viral meme that baselessly claimed that seven antifa activists had been arrested for arson in Medford, and in a post to the group, a local Facebook user accused him of spreading an “unsubstantiated rumor”.

In comments on the post, Paasch first falsely denied that his original post “said they were antifa”, and then added a further post discussing an unrelated fire in Gold Beach, with the comment, “You think no one is lighting fires and trying to burn down towns and hurt people, wake up.”

Later, Oregon state representative David Brock Smith weighed in to defend Paasch, and the post, writing, “there are individuals out there hellbent on destruction. I’m not saying they’re associated with any group, but more information is coming to light by the hour.”

Paasch did not immediately respond to questions about who they thought was deliberately lighting fires, and for what purpose.

Smith responded to questions in an email, writing: “I was very clear in my comments; on a post from an individual who constantly vilifies individuals that do not agree with her, and stated multiple times that I am not associating arson activities to any group”, attaching screenshots and links to a series of unrelated arsons, or suspected arsons, in disparate areas of the state.

There were more concentrated streams of disinformation inside the private group for COPS NW, an organizing network that has recently promoted a series of pro-Trump, pro-police and anti-Black Lives Matter demonstrations around north-west Oregon that have at times culminated in violent confrontations with Black Lives Matter protesters.

In past days, COPS NW has featured intense discussions on a series of false stories and rumors about antifa arsonists, including baseless claims that an activist had been arrested for lighting fires near Salem and another had been rammed while lighting fires in now-evacuated Beavercreek. The group also discussed a viral post that falsely claimed that the fires were a “coordinated and planned attack” and that an arsonist had been shot and killed by a property owner near Damascus.

The leader of COPS NW, Audra Price, has consistently said in public to have peaceful aims, but suggested after days in which such material had been circulating virtually unchallenged in the group that perhaps violence was necessary. “Maybe allowing Antifa to terrorize our cities for as long as they did, was the wrong choice for us to make. I sure hope our passivity didn’t contribute to what’s going on now. I won’t lie. I’m very torn about whether or not, my encouraging people to remain peaceful, was the right choice,” Price wrote.

On Friday, Price posted a message she said came from “an LEO in Clackamas”, using an abbreviation for law enforcement officers. The post pleaded with the group to stop circulating false information about the fires and echoed other pleas from first responders aimed at staunching the flow of false information.

“The false info spreading faster than the fire is hindering our efforts,” the message said. “NO Antifa have been arrested for arson in our area. This false info is making our jobs more difficult by having to check fictitious problems and deal with neighborhood militias that mean well, but are interfering with our efforts.”

Price prefaced the relayed text with a disclaimer: “I am just as confused by his message as all of you are and I told the officer that. I explained that I have a few people who I trust make the claim that CCSO and other LE told them it is antifa.”

Most commenters in the group flatly rejected the idea that they were believing and were spreading false information. One user said of alleged antifa arsonists, “So unless it’s tattooed on their forehead it’s not true? I’ll judge for myself thank you.” Another remarked, “This is disappointing, especially when we know better. I feel like someone is running a large scale cover up from the top.”

In response to questions about disinformation in her group, and her apparent call for violence, Price wrote in a Facebook message, “I have no comment to you. You twist things and you lie. Why in the world, would I give you any answers?”

Hundessa was assassinated on June 29 while driving through the capital Addis Ababa. The man police charged with Hundessa’s killing told prosecutors that he was working as an assassin for the Oromo Liberation Front, an armed nationalist group linked to numerous violent attacks — and who told the shooter that Oromia would benefit from the death of one of its most famous singers.

Hundessa’s death at age 34 set off a wave of violence in the capital and his home region of Oromia. Hundreds of people were killed, with minorities like Christian Amharas, Christian Oromos, and Gurage people suffering the biggest losses.

This bloodshed was supercharged by the almost-instant and widespread sharing of hate speech and incitement to violence on Facebook, which whipped up people’s anger. Mobs destroyed and burned property. They lynched, beheaded, and dismembered their victims.

The calls for violence against a variety of ethnic and religious groups happened despite the government shutting down the internet within hours of Hundessa’s murder. Soon, the same people who’d been calling for genocide and attacks against specific religous or ethnic groups were openly posting photographs of burned-out cars, buildings, schools and houses, the Network Against Hate Speech, a volunteer group tracking hate speech in Ethiopia, told VICE News.

These attacks reflect the volatile nature of ethnic politics in Ethiopia. Abiy’s rise to power in 2018 led to a brief period of hope that Ethiopia could be unified under the first Oromo to lead the country. But that quickly evaporated, and the country has since been wracked by violence, coinciding with a rapid increase in access to the internet, where Facebook dominates. And rather than helping to unify the country, Facebook has simply amplified existing tensions on a massive scale.

“When the violence erupts offline, online content that calls for ethnic attacks, discrimination, and destruction of property goes viral,” Berhan Taye, Africa policy lead at digital rights group Access Now, told VICE News. “Facebook's inaction helps propagate hate and polarization in a country and has a devastating impact on the narrative and extent of the violence.”

And it’s not as if Facebook hasn’t been warned. In October 2019, a viral Facebook post led to the deaths of over 80 people, and in May, the U.N. published a report highlighting the dangers of hate speech on its platform.