How Fake News Turned a Small Town Upside Down
The New York Times’s Caitlin Dickerson reports on a 2016 sexual assault case in Twin Falls, Idaho, which involved two young refugee boys and an American-born girl. The case made headlines and became part of online anti-Islam conspiracies. Dickerson writes, “The Twin Falls story aligned perfectly with the ideology that Stephen Bannon, then the head of Breitbart News, had been developing for years, about the havoc brought on by unchecked immigration and Islamism, all of it backed by big-business interests and establishment politicians.” A lot of misinformation was spread about the case online, as Russian-connected Facebook accounts fanned the flames. Anti-refugee activists continue to use the case to support their agenda.