Introduction Within minutes of the August 2019 mass shooting in Odessa, Texas, social media was ablaze with safety warnings and messages of panic about the attack. The shooter, later identified as Seth Ator, had opened fire from inside his car, and then continued his spree from a stolen postal service van, ultimately killing seven people and injuring 25. Not 30 minutes after the shooting, a tweet alleging that Ator was "a Democrat Socialist who had a Beto sticker on his truck," suggesting a connection between the shooter and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), went viral. The post quickly spread to other social media sites, accompanied by a rear angle photo of a white minivan adorned with a Beto 2020 sticker. A cascade of speculative messages followed, alleging deeper ties between the shooter and O’Rourke, who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination at the time.
A screenshot of a tweet falsely alleging a connection between mass shooter Seth Ator and former U.S. presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, which received more than 11,100 retweets (Twitter, Sept. 1, 2019).
But the post was a fabrication. The O'Rourke campaign swiftly spoke out, denying any link between the candidate and the shooter and condemning social media platforms for hosting messages promoting the false allegation. Local law enforcement confirmed that neither of the vehicles driven by Ator had Beto stickers on them, and that Ator was registered as "unaffiliated," undercutting follow-on social media messages that called Ator a "registered Democrat." Twitter temporarily suspended the account, but much of the damage had already been done.
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