Social media algorithms boost L.A. protest misinformation in ‘combustible' environment

CNN

4 days ago

Offline, in real-world Los Angeles, most Angelenos are having a perfectly normal day. But online, the fires and riots are still raging.
The powerful algorithms that fuel social media platforms are feeding users days-old and sometimes completely fake content about the recent unrest in L.A., contributing to a sense of nonstop crisis that doesn't exist beyond a small part of the sprawling city.
Unvetted accounts on platforms like X and TikTok, in an apparent bid for clicks, clout and chaos, have preyed on the fears of liberals and conservatives about where last weekend's clashes will lead.
An AI-generated fake video on TikTok purported to show a National Guardsman going by the name Bob livestreaming his preparation for 'today's gassing' of protesters. The video has been viewed more than 960,000 times as of Tuesday afternoon. Many in the comments section called the video a fake, but others appeared to believe it was real. (The video, which was debunked by BBC News, appears to have since been taken down.)
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Sign up here to receive Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter in your inbox. 'What's happening on social media is similar to the chaos of the information environment around the 2020 George Floyd protests,' said Renée DiResta, an associate research professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and an expert on how conspiracy theories spread online. 'People are trying to discern between real current footage and recycled sensational old footage repurposed for political or financial ends.'
In 2025, though, AI-generated images are more abundant, and users have splintered onto different online platforms 'where different stories are being told,' DiResta told CNN.
On X, where right-wing views tend to flourish, influencers are denouncing the anti-ICE protesters as agitators and terrorists, while on the more left-wing Bluesky, prominent users are condemning President Trump's deployment of the National Guard.
Hyperpartisan and hyperactive accounts on X have been wildly overstating the actual volume of unrest in Southern California, furthering the online confusion about the offline situation.
One viral post on X falsely claimed on Sunday that there were 'breaking' news reports that Mexico was considering 'military intervention' in Los Angeles. More than 2 million people have viewed the post as of Tuesday afternoon.
Dozens of posts on X have spread conspiracy theories claiming the protesters were government-backed or funded by various sources, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank. Many of those posts have over a million views, and only a handful of them have been fact-checked with X's community notes features.
CNN has requested comment from X and TikTok.
Recognizing how viral posts can distort public opinion and potentially exacerbate violence, California Governor Gavin Newsom's office on Sunday night pleaded with the public to 'check your sources before sharing info!' in a post on X.
The governor's office also directly debunked some of the info. As some protests in L.A. turned ugly on Sunday evening, Senator Ted Cruz shared a shocking video clip of L.A. Police Department cars on fire and wrote, 'this… is… not… peaceful.'
The Texas senator's X post implied the video clip was brand-new, but it was actually from 2020, when the racial justice protests tipped into civil unrest.
Cruz was reacting to actor James Woods, one of the prominent conservative X users who promoted the five-year-old fire video. Newsom responded to Woods: 'This video is from 2020.'
Adding to the confusion, vandals did damage several police cars and set several self-driving cars on fire Sunday evening. But the viral clip reposted by Woods was old.
Federal government accounts have been among the misleading sources on social media. A Defense Department 'rapid response' account on X claimed Monday morning that 'Los Angeles is burning, and local leaders are refusing to respond.'
But there were no reports of fires burning in L.A. at the time of the Defense Department's claim.
Russian and Chinese state media have also amplified images of the unrest, whether real or fake.
Chinese state media outlets have 'rapidly seized on the deployment of Marines in the streets of Los Angeles,' the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy, a think tank, said in an analysis shared with CNN.
'In keeping with their coverage of 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, PRC (People's Republic of China) propaganda outlets have used protests in the United States to dent America's image abroad and to suggest that the US government's response to protests at home bears little resemblance to their support for protests overseas,' Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, told CNN.
Russian state-controlled outlet Sputnik, meanwhile, circulated a photo, also shared by the actor Woods, purporting to show 'pallets of bricks' at a protest site. But that photo is actually from a construction site in New Jersey, according to X's 'community notes' feature.
Russian state media outlets have also echoed false or misleading claims from pro-Trump influencers about left-wing groups and figures funding the protests, according to Schafer.
Moscow 'seems less interested in scoring propaganda points and more interested in throwing fuel into a combustible domestic information environment,' he said.