Elon Musk’s tweets about Texas mall gunman spread misleading claims, question shooter’s background

May 10, 2023, 11:32 AM

FILE - People place flowers and pay their respects at a memorial for victims of the Allen Premium O...

FILE - People place flowers and pay their respects at a memorial for victims of the Allen Premium Outlets mass shooting, May 9, 2023, in Allen, Texas. Misleading claims about the gunman who killed eight people at a Dallas-area shopping center are swirling on Twitter, thanks in part to the platform's owner, Elon Musk. Musk has questioned the gunman's self-professed white supremacist views, and said they could be part of a “psychological operation” to mislead the public. (Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News via AP, file )
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News via AP, file )

WASHINGTON (AP) — Misleading claims about the Elon Musk.

Musk has questioned whether the man identified by authorities as the shooter, Mauricio Garcia, really had an account on a Russian social media platform, and Musk suggested that revelations about the shooter’s background could be a “psyop,” or psychological operation, in which the public is misled about the real details of the shooting.

Garcia proclaimed his white supremacist views on social media and sported Nazi tattoos. Authorities and independent researchers have confirmed his interest in far-right extremism and white supremacism. When police killed Garcia, he was wearing a patch that read “RWDS,” an acronym that stands for “ Right Wing Death Squad.”

“We do know he had neo-Nazi ideation,” Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Hank Sibley said a news conference on Tuesday. “He had patches. He had tattoos.”

Musk also cast doubt on a Netherlands-based research group known as Bellingcat that released information about Garcia’s online history when he tweeted that it “specializes in psychological operations.” He offered no evidence to support his claim, but the attack led to a barrage of harassment directed at Bellingcat from Musk’s online fans.

“This is either the weirdest story ever or a very bad psyop!” Musk wrote in a tweet viewed more than 3 million times. Musk also responded to revelations about the gunman’s ideology, with posts suggesting he didn’t believe them. “Very strange,” Musk wrote in one instance. “This gets weirder by the moment,” in other.

Garcia’s online history leaves little doubt that he harbored deeply negative views of Jewish people, people of color and women, according to an analysis of his posts conducted by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, an Alabama-based nonprofit that tracks extremist groups online.

“Going back 10 years, the posts and diary entries show that Garcia held deep-seated white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs, as well as misogynistic and incel views, and a proclivity for violence,” the organization concluded in its report. “ Incel ” refers to “involuntarily celibate,” a term used by a largely online movement of men who blame women for their lack of sexual and romantic opportunities.

source of misinformation himself. A new Twitter feature called “community notes” was created to allow users to add context or fact check claims themselves. But no community notes were attached to Musk’s own Tweets about the gunman as of Wednesday.

Twitter did not answer questions seeking comment about Musk’s misleading tweets, and instead responded in its now regular fashion, with an automated email containing only the excrement emoji.

Musk wasn’t the only prominent user spreading false claims about the shooter on Twitter.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., shrugged off Garcia’s self-professed racist views, noting that he was Latino. “Only dumb white people would believe that a Mexican gang member is killing people for white supremacy.”

Greene’s Tweet ignores the fact that white supremacist groups have long tried to recruit Latinos; some such groups have created Spanish-language versions of their websites. And Enrique Tarrio, a Cuban American, is the former leader of the Proud Boys, one of the nation’s most influential far-right groups.

United States News

FILE - Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra speaks during the opening of contract talks with the Unit...

Associated Press

GM CEO Mary Barra to discuss EV charging with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are scheduled to discuss the future of electric vehicle charging on Twitter Spaces on Thursday afternoon. It wasn’t clear exactly what Barra and Musk plan to announce. But their discussion comes days after Ford CEO Jim Farley joined Musk to announce that […]

14 hours ago

Associated Press

NY attorney general files lawsuit against anti-abortion group known for blocking access to clinics

NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s attorney general filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday against an anti-abortion group whose members have been arrested for blocking access to health care clinics in New York and other states. The group, Red Rose Rescue, “has made it their mission to terrorize reproductive health care providers and the patients […]

14 hours ago

FILE- This Oct. 18, 2008 file photo shows the Charging Bull sculpture in New York City's Financial ...

Associated Press

The S&P 500 is in a bull market. Here’s what that means and how long the bull might run

The S&P 500 is now in what Wall Street refers to as a bull market, meaning the index has risen 20% or more from its most recent low. Here are some answers to questions about bull and bear markets: WHY IT IS CALLED A BULL MARKET? Wall Street’s nickname for a surging stock market is […]

14 hours ago

FILE - White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha speaks during the daily briefing at the...

Associated Press

Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 coordinator, to leave post next week

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ashish Jha, the White House’s point person on the COVID-19 response, will depart from the administration next week. The White House said Thursday that Jha will return to Brown University, where he had served as the dean of the university’s school of public health before joining the White House as its COVID-19 […]

14 hours ago

An entrance to The Covenant School is seen Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. The school ...

Associated Press

Attorney: Ownership of Nashville shooter’s writing to go students’ parents

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ownership of the writings of a shooter who killed six people at a Nashville school earlier this year will be transferred to the families of students at the school, an attorney representing the shooter’s parents announced Thursday. The development is the latest twist in the increasingly complex legal battle over the […]

14 hours ago

Associated Press

5 flown to hospital after portion of elevated walkway collapses in Texas beachside city

SURFSIDE BEACH, Texas (AP) — At least five people were flown to be hospitalized after part of an elevated walkway collapsed Thursday in a beachside city in Texas. It happened Thursday afternoon in Surfside Beach, a small city on the Gulf of Mexico, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of downtown Houston. Surfside Beach Volunteer […]

14 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

...

OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

How to identify the symptoms of 3 common anxiety disorders

Living with an anxiety disorder can be debilitating and cause significant stress for those who suffer from the condition.

(Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona Photo)...

Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona

5 common causes for chronic neck pain

Neck pain can debilitate one’s daily routine, yet 80% of people experience it in their lives and 20%-50% deal with it annually.

...

Day & Night Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing

Company looking for oldest air conditioner and wants to reward homeowner with new one

Does your air conditioner make weird noises or a burning smell when it starts? If so, you may be due for an AC unit replacement.

Elon Musk’s tweets about Texas mall gunman spread misleading claims, question shooter’s background