by Jayne Cravens
More resources at coyotecommunications.com &
coyoteboard.com (same web site)
What a Small Town Online Campaign
Against Misinformation Can Look Like
I'm offering this case study
because I was a part of the online community where this attempt
at a misinformation campaign was started, and I want to show
that ANY community, in ANY country, is vulnerable to such
myth-spreading:
In June 2017, an image was
posted to a very popular Facebook group that targeted an Oregon
small town in particular. The image claimed to be by a woman who
had been to a local grocery store in the town and who, while in
the parking lot, was accosted by strangers who wanted to buy her
baby. A number of things in the claim and image made the online
community skeptical:
- There was an image that was supposedly of the
woman being accosted, taken from across the street. But who
took the photo! Also, there are no security cameras aimed from
across the street at that parking lot.
- The woman claimed to have parked at another
business and walked to the grocery store, carrying an
eight-month-old infant. It was a scorching hot day and the
businesses are .4 miles apart.
Below is the fake meme, which
I've tried to watermark throughout with tags to show that it's
fake, in case someone tries to share it as a real warning. It's
followed by a selection of screen captures of posts made by
moderators and members of the group, and these illustrate how
the Facebook group members immediately began trying to debunk
the misinformation, as well as a selection of responses from
people willing to believe the story. Then come screen captures
of posts by members of the city's police department to show how
they were trying to respond and debunk the rumors. The last post
is by a police representative who is originally from the town
where this event supposedly happened, who had built strong ties
to the community over the years through proactive outreach (he
invited me for coffee soon after I moved here), and who was a
very trusted community member - all of his trust-building paid
off, because as you see very early on, someone tags him to make
sure he is seeing the thread, and once he posted his response
(last screen capture), the controversy quickly died
down. It's an illustration of what I try to say in my long list
of recommendations
on addressing folklore, rumors and urban myths - it's why
most of my recommendations are about the community
trust-building that needs to happen BEFORE any event like this
takes place.
In the screen captures, I have
masked the names of all people posting except for myself and the
representatives of the police department - however, note that I
have not masked the name of the city and, as this all from a
Facebook group, the information is public: anyone with a
Facebook group could find this information, with no filters,
online. I don't want to embarrass anyone who believed the meme
before it was thoroughly debunked, however, everyone who posts
to Facebook should remember that what they post is, virtually
speaking, forever and easily found online.
In case the thread or the group is ever erased, I also have the
entire conversation, uncensored, in a PDF and am willing to
share it with academic researchers regarding projects related to
addressing online rumors / misinformation.
If you have a sight impairment and are doing academic research
and need these images transcribed for your research, please
contact me and I will be happy to help you.
Intro post
Selection 1
Selection 2
Selection 3
Selection 4
Response from the police 1
Response from the police 2
