BUSTED: RWNJs Ran False Flag Op To Spread Fake Antifa Memes (TWEETS/PHOTOS)

By
Darrell Lucus
-



In recent weeks, a number of memes have been floating around social media claiming that militant anti-fascist, or antifa, groups promoted unprovoked attacks on female supporters of Donald Trump. But there’s one problem–they aren’t real. A British researcher and blogger discovered evidence that these memes are actually part of a right-wing astroturfing campaign.

Earlier in the week, a number of Twitter accounts purporting to support the antifa movement started sharing graphic and violent memes calling for antifa activists to physically attack women who backed Trump last fall. They came accompanied with hashtags like “#PunchNazis,” “#MakeRacistsAfraidAgain” and “#BashTheFash.”

Eliot Higgins of the open source online investigation network Bellingcat, best known for having found evidence that the Syrian army was using chemical-tipped barrel bombs, thought something about this campaign didn’t add up. For one thing, a number of the Twitter accounts firing off these memes showed clear signs of being sockpuppets. One user, “@RockMountAntifa,” tweeted out 29 images in four hours. However, the account was only created in August–and made no other tweets apart from those images.


Higgins’ search led to /pol/, the famously “politically incorrect” message board on 4chan. He stumbled on a post calling for members to search for images of domestic violence, photoshop them with slogans like “She deserves it for being a Nazi,” and post them to Twitter. They were the exact same images being used by the supposed antifa accounts.

The 4chan board where the astroturfing began (screenshot courtesy Eliot Higgins)
The 4chan board where the astroturfing began (screenshot courtesy Eliot Higgins)

Here are some examples.

The bottom-feeders tried to claim that this was a real campaign, but Higgins noticed that a number of those accounts were pea-soup green–a telltale sign that they were phony.

Higgins told the BBC that this campaign bore all the earmarks of being a false flag. He noted that many of the accounts were “clearly made in the last ten hours and had few followers.” It was also laughably easy to prove that it was indeed fake.

The great majority of those accounts appear to have been suspended. But to get an idea just how outrageous these memes were, take a look at one of the few that is still alive, “@Antifascist19.” I managed to get some screenshots of what this troll was sharing.

Screenshot courtesy @Antifascist19
Screenshot courtesy @Antifascist19
Screenshot courtesy @Antifascist19
Screenshot courtesy @Antifascist19
Screenshot courtesy @Antifascist19
Screenshot courtesy @Antifascist19
Screenshot courtesy @Antifascist19
Screenshot courtesy @Antifascist19

Although he described /pol/’s effort as “pretty clumsy” and “pathetic,” he didn’t put it past these bottom-feeders to try something more sophisticated in the future. But they may not get a chance to pull it off, thanks to this meme.

(screenshot courtesy Eliot Higgins)
(screenshot courtesy Eliot Higgins)

It turns out that picture was actually a repurposed version of a 2007 Women’s Aid ad featuring actress Anna Friel–best known as Chuck Charles in “Pushing Daisies” and Holly Cantrell in the film version of “Land of the Lost.” When Friel’s Twitter followers alerted Friel about this, Friel was not happy.

By Friday night London time, Friel had already begun the process of taking legal action.

If I were the people behind this campaign, I’d be very afraid. Given the circumstances, Friel’s lawyers could really draw blood. Specifically, it’s possible they could pierce the veil of anonymity–the very thing that drives this kind of trolling.


So it looks like this false flag could result in some real-world consequences for the people behind this. It would be what they deserve, and then some.

(featured image courtesy Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR