After the terror attack in New York today, I went looking to see what propaganda #AltWankers were pushing in the aftermath.
It didn't take very long to find this tweet from Jack Posobiec tying the attack to the claim that antifa are being trained by ISIS.
So, I searched for tweets containing "antifa" and "training". Relevant activity goes back to January, with a huge spike in the last 2 days.
Tweet volume for tweets containing both "antifa" and "training". I marked the points when various dubious "news" sites were first linked.
Tweet/retweet relationships for antifa/training tweets. So far, Jack Posobiec is driving most of the traffic. #AltWankers
Jack joined the discussion yesterday, when Ed Klein published a book claiming that antifa are traveling abroad to be trained by ISIS.
Let's go back to January. First tweet I was able to locate on the topic - appears to be posted on behalf of Milo Yiannopolous. #AltWankers
Propaganda stories frequently appear earlier on 4chan than other sites. Police are the supposed antifa-trainers in this post from April.
Infowars got in on the action in late June, followed by Daily Caller at the end of July. #AltWankers
In early October fake news site yournewswire posts allegations of antifa being trained in Syria, followed soon thereafter by Pamela Geller.
Nobody can agree on who exactly is training antifa. Partisangirl, writer for both Infowars and New Eastern Outlook, blames the Kurdish YPG.
Footnote: New Eastern Outlook is produced by the Russian Academy of Sciences and has a decidedly anti-Western bias.
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