Far-right Telegram channels are saying that Uvalde shooting victims never existed
Fake news channels are spreading the far-right conspiracy that none of the kids killed in the Uvalde shooting are real. The lie is part of a larger conspiracy that the shooting was orchestrated by the federal government.
Right-wing extremist groups on the social media app Telegram are now perpetuating the lie that none of the 19 children killed by the 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 ever existed.
An eight-minute video circulating on several popular channels of Telegram, which allows users to broadcast messages to public and private audiences, falsely asserts that none of the victims are real because there are no public records available documenting any of their births. However, the state of Texas doesn't publicly release birth records for anyone born within the past 75 years, except when requested by family members, authorized legal representatives or the persons themselves, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
Among the many lies in the Telegram video, it continues to push the idea that the same type of fabrication happened during the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. About 15 seconds into the video, white text appears on a black background, stating that no records exist of any of the 26 students murdered in Newton, Connecticut, during what remains the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
The suggestion that none of the children killed during these massacres existed aims to convince people that the shootings were actually orchestrated by the federal government—often referred to as ‘false flag’ operations. The ‘false flag’ conspiracy theory has cropped up after mass shootings in the past: Austin-based far-right provocateur Alex Jones pushed the same lie following Sandy Hook, claiming that the attack was staged by government agents and the media to stoke support for gun control measures.
Jones made the same claim on his InfoWars site days after a shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo last month left 10 people dead, which is especially surprising given that Jones is now facing bankruptcy following a slew of defamation lawsuits from parents of children who lost their kids during the Sandy Hook shooting. Arizona state Rep. Wendy Rogers is now facing an investigation after she endorsed the Buffalo shooting conspiracy to her 135,000-plus followers on her Telegram channel.
The Uvalde video—and the false information it alleges—has similarly been shared across several popular far-right channels and sources on Telegram, some of which have hundreds of thousands of followers. Among the most authoritative channels the video is posted on is the Dallas QAnon cult leader’s group, which currently has more than 68,000 followers.
Uvalde Shooting
- Praise for Uvalde shooter and call for copycats is growing online
- Pastor shot at by Uvalde gunman recounts terror in sermon
- Uvalde mom describes how she rescued her kids from the school
- Report: Uvalde police chief didn't have radio when attack began
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/uvalde-shooting-telegram-conspiracy-17234419.php
Right-wing extremist groups on the social media app Telegram are now perpetuating the lie that none of the 19 children killed by the 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 ever existed.
An eight-minute video circulating on several popular channels of Telegram, which allows users to broadcast messages to public and private audiences, falsely asserts that none of the victims are real because there are no public records available documenting any of their births. However, the state of Texas doesn't publicly release birth records for anyone born within the past 75 years, except when requested by family members, authorized legal representatives or the persons themselves, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
Among the many lies in the Telegram video, it continues to push the idea that the same type of fabrication happened during the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. About 15 seconds into the video, white text appears on a black background, stating that no records exist of any of the 26 students murdered in Newton, Connecticut, during what remains the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
The suggestion that none of the children killed during these massacres existed aims to convince people that the shootings were actually orchestrated by the federal government—often referred to as ‘false flag’ operations. The ‘false flag’ conspiracy theory has cropped up after mass shootings in the past: Austin-based far-right provocateur Alex Jones pushed the same lie following Sandy Hook, claiming that the attack was staged by government agents and the media to stoke support for gun control measures.
Jones made the same claim on his InfoWars site days after a shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo last month left 10 people dead, which is especially surprising given that Jones is now facing bankruptcy following a slew of defamation lawsuits from parents of children who lost their kids during the Sandy Hook shooting. Arizona state Rep. Wendy Rogers is now facing an investigation after she endorsed the Buffalo shooting conspiracy to her 135,000-plus followers on her Telegram channel.
The Uvalde video—and the false information it alleges—has similarly been shared across several popular far-right channels and sources on Telegram, some of which have hundreds of thousands of followers. Among the most authoritative channels the video is posted on is the Dallas QAnon cult leader’s group, which currently has more than 68,000 followers.
Uvalde Shooting
- Praise for Uvalde shooter and call for copycats is growing online
- Pastor shot at by Uvalde gunman recounts terror in sermon
- Uvalde mom describes how she rescued her kids from the school
- Report: Uvalde police chief didn't have radio when attack began
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/uvalde-shooting-telegram-conspiracy-17234419.php
