Using the Life Cycle of Media Manipulation, each case study features a chronological description of a media manipulation event, which is filtered along specific variables such as tactics, targets, mitigation, outcomes, and keywords.
On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, Nikolas Cruz attacked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 students and teachers. After fleeing the scene, Cruz was apprehended alive by police. Before being officially identified by law enforcement, speculation and false identifications of the shooter circulated online. During this period of confusion, a hoax targeting journalists led to a misidentification, naming Cruz as a member of a small white nationalist militia.
In the aftermath of the deadly car attack during the Unite the Right Rally of August 2017, a misidentification of the driver, and subsequent doxing of an unrelated individual, muddied the waters before the actual suspect was apprehended and identified by police. By seeding social media with erroneous evidence collages, an innocent individual was subject to doxing and targeted harassment by far-right extremist operators organized on 4chan and 8chan.
