In the past week, several social media posts have raised alarms and resulted in looting in Scottsdale, authorities locking Arizona malls down, and deployment of militia members to patrol the streets fully armed.
Some new posts on several social media platforms are warning citizens of armed black marauders lurking in suburban neighbourhoods.
Real or fake?
Thought posts are baseless and have no evidence to support their authenticity; users are driven into a fear-filled frenzy leading to sharing of texts and screenshots of the fake posts and official taking the messages as facts, as reported by AZCentral.
Arizona is not the only state that has been hit by the wave of fake social media posts as they have also made their way through to California and Florida and have gained traction amid the social unrest that the protests have created.
A social media expert and instructor, Julie Smith, said: "The same messages were going out on my neighbourhood Facebook page." She added that she did not believe these sorts of posts.
Smith said that the posts did not seem to have a clear motive that led them to spread the rumours and noted that there are some people who simply want to see the world burn in chaos.
The lack of evidence and sketchiness of the posts have not deterred social media users from reacting to and sharing them, however, as several hundred looters targetted the local Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall after one fake post called on the people to focus their rage and anger to the shopping centre.
In Phoenix, similar posts shared on Sunday caused several malls to close down across the state. Police officers created barricades to the entrances of the establishments and set up perimeter patrols to scan the area. It also resulted in members of the militia to go past curfew to shield businesses and prevent looters from raiding.
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Similar fake posts
According to BBC, similar to the fake posts about chaos and mayhem, some social media posts about the coronavirus pandemic have also surfaced. The misleading information contains false cures, anti-vaccination propaganda, and some had conspiracy theories surrounding how 5G spreads the deadly virus.
With at least 90% of the posts remaining visible and on the platforms, Facebook said that the sample was "not representative."
One Facebook spokesperson noted that the company is taking appropriate steps to ensure that misleading and baseless information is removed from their platforms. They added that several hundreds of thousands of posts had been removed.
On Monday, several violent posts spread concerns that black radicals would be invading white neighbourhoods that allegedly planned to commit rape and murder.
Several police agencies in different cities responded to threats of coordinated looting whose plans were shared on several social media platforms.
Baseless information that suggested assailants would be targeting wealthy communities led several agencies to try and overtake the misinformation. Local officials stated that they had no convincing evidence or reason to believe the reports as being credible.
The Scottsdale Police Department posted on its social media page that they were aware of the unsubstantiated posts that have been targeting their local area and urged the public to call in any information they may have regarding the posts.
