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It is false that the Texas school killer was a transgender woman

2022-05-27T03:24:27.384Z


Several photos of trans women have been used on social networks to fuel the false theory, which began on the 4chan forum. Several conservative figures, including Republican Rep. Paul Gozar, have repeated the lie.


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By Jo Yurcaba, Ben Goggin and Ben Collins —

NBC News

Sam, a transgender woman living in Georgia, said that on Tuesday night Reddit users began commenting on one of her photos that she had shared on the platform three months ago.

They told him the photo was being shared on 4chan, a website with little moderation,

under the false pretense that it showed the killer who

 killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday.

The attacker, identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, was killed at the scene by police.

[Texas Killer's Mother Says Her Son Was 'Not a Monster' But He Could Be Aggressive]

Sam, 20, who asked only to use his first name to protect his privacy, told NBC News that several photos of him were taken without permission from his personal Instagram page, and that he faced harassment and threats as they spread. .

“This is not the first time I have been harassed, but it is the first time I have been accused of murder,” he said. 

Sam is a trans woman from Georgia whose images were used to spread the false idea that she was the Uvalde, Texas shooter. Courtesy of Sam

The false claims began shortly after news of the shooting broke.

A photo of Sam was posted on 4chan on Tuesday afternoon, with a caption that read, "Here's the shooter's reddit," accompanied by a link to his Reddit account and various transphobic slurs.

While some users said they didn't believe the photo was of the killer, others posted new images taken from Sam's profile, with less detail on his face.

Sam assured that she feels upset more than anything:

“I am more worried about the families of the victims of the attack”

, she told NBC News.

[Grandfather of Texas Killer Apologizes for the Damage His Grandson Caused: "I'm in Pain for Everything"]

Some social media users and trolls on 4chan, Twitter and Facebook are using Sam's photos and images of at least two other transgender women to spread the false theory that Uvalde's killer was trans. 

In some cases, they have montaged the women's photos alongside images from an Instagram page believed to have belonged to the attacker.

And to make matters worse, these false claims were spread by several well-known conservative figures on Tuesday.

Sam posed Wednesday with a sign bearing the date May 25, to prove he was not the person who attacked Robb Elementary School in Texas. Courtesy of Sam

For example, Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, wrote on Twitter that the killer: "Is a transgender leftist illegal immigrant named Salvatore Ramos."

Gosar, who has since deleted the post, has not responded to a request for comment.

A photo of Sam was shared by the Young Conservatives of Southern Indiana Facebook page, which has more than 4,000 followers.

[Texas School Killer Runs Away From His Mom's House After Fight Over Wi-Fi]

Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist who was successfully sued for defamation after falsely claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, also repeated the misinformation that the Uvalde shooting suspect was trans.

Representatives for Jones' website did not immediately respond to inquiries from NBC News.

Another conservative, Candace Owens, said Wednesday that she had seen "cross-dressing" photos of the massacre suspect.

Owens has shared misinformation in the past and unsuccessfully sued Facebook in 2021 after the company added a disinformation warning to one of her posts.

"It was the laughter of the devil": a surviving girl from Uvalde says that the shooter laughed while shooting at them

May 26, 202201:45

The photos some social media users say show the shooter are actually images of three different transgender women wearing skirts, including Sam, according to the Trans Safety Network, a UK-based group that monitors online threats. against the transgender community.

The group wrote in a post that all three women have confirmed they are alive.

In an effort to debunk the false story, Sam shared a photo of herself standing in front of a transgender Pride flag on Reddit Tuesday night, writing,

"It's not me, I don't even live in Texas."

In response to a comment on the post, she said that she just wants to "live without being attacked" when she leaves her house. She also shared another photo in which she is seen holding a paper with yesterday's date, Wednesday the 25th. May. 

[“He knew very well what he was doing,” says a neighbor of Uvalde's murderer]

She asked people to be careful what they see online.

“There are transphobic people out there and people are quick to blame someone for terrible things instead of seeking the truth about what really happened

,” Sam told NBC News.

Despite the fact that the posts with Sam's photos violate the disinformation policies of Twitter and Facebook, the platforms have done little to combat this new campaign of falsehoods.

Sam is 20 years old.

He said he's upset about the misuse of photos of him, but he's much more concerned about the families of the victims of the massacre in Uvalde, Texas.

Courtesy of Sam

A review of Twitter and Facebook Wednesday morning found numerous posts using Sam's image and labeling her as the Uvalde attacker. 

In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said: “In accordance with our hateful conduct policy, we will request the removal of tweets that share misleading claims about the identity of the perpetrator, with the intent to incite fear or spread fearful stereotypes about a person. protected category. 

[Seventeen children remain hospitalized after the shooting in Uvalde, several of them in serious condition]

The spokesperson also said they would remove posts that had material that presents "a false or misleading context surrounding the identity of the perpetrator." 

"This has to stop"

A spokesman for Meta, which owns Facebook, said the company is removing content that violates its bullying and harassment policy, which prohibits content "in which criminal accusations pose offline harm to the person named."

“They have relied on me and others to report misinformation before doing anything,” Sam criticized.

Some advocates in the trans community condemned the misconception that the shooter was transgender.

Two AR-15s and 375 cartridges: the arsenal that the Texas killer bought days after his 18th birthday

May 26, 202200:35

“This HAS to stop,” Erin Reed, a trans activist, said on Twitter.

Reed recalled investigations Texas opened in March against the parents of some transgender youth, following a directive from Gov. Greg Abbott that directed state agencies to investigate complaints against parents who provide gender-affirming health care to minors.

Another trans advocate, Charlotte Clymer, criticized Rep. Gosar, saying she "owes the public an apology."

["It's something from a horror movie": the story of an agent who attended the emergency at the Uvalde school]

“Pathetic that @DrPaulGosar has sought to exploit this horrible tragedy for anti-trans propaganda

,” Clymer wrote.

“There is no evidence that the killer is transgender.”

Reporter and MSNBC contributor Katelyn Burns recalled that this is not the first time that "right-wing liars have tried to falsely claim that a mass attacker was trans." 

Burns referenced an article he wrote in April 2018, following a shooting at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, in which three people were injured.

The attacker killed himself when police arrived at the scene, and some far-right websites and conservative critics later speculated, without evidence, that he was transgender.

Chronology of a terrible massacre: this is how the Uvalde attacker perpetrated his crime

May 26, 202201:00

Burns also recalled that after a 2015 shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that left three people dead, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, shared the false theory that the perpetrator was transgender after a far-right outlet reported that she registered to vote as a woman.

["It's hard to believe": the grandfather of Uvalde's killer is baffled by his crimes]

“Well, it has also been reported that he was registered as an independent leftist activist, female and transgender, if that is what he is,” Cruz said during a campaign event in 2015, according to audio obtained by the Texas Tribune.

At the time, Cruz's campaign told reporters that the politician was trying to make it clear that there were still many unknown details about the Colorado shooter.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-05-27

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