The most notable thing about the internet is how quickly we are able to get information. By opening up X, or Instagram, or YouTube,or even Google you can immediately be given the latest reports.
Except, that isn’t always the case.
In the wake of the New Orleans terrorist attack that killed fourteen people the morning of Jan. 1, misinformation about the attacker overtook reports about the actual attack. Both sides of the political spectrum were spreading false information, and many even doubled down on their outright incorrect accusations.
To be clear, the man who committed the attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbarwas, was an American citizen by birth and a veteran. There is also the complicated question of his motivation because while he carried an ISIS flag during the attack and filmed videos in support of them prior to the attack, it does not appear that he was in any real contact with ISIS members. What officials were able to find evidence of was a history of rough divorces and domestic abuse.
Yet, immediately after the attack, all anyone could focus on was not the victims or the city of New Orleans but rather pointing the finger at the newest conspiracy surrounding the attacker.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, United States Representative of Georgia’s 14th congressional district claimed this on her X account: “New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!!” in spite of Jabbarwas being a birthright American citizen.
On a similar note, many people who lean left on the app Threads were claiming that authorities weren’t naming Jabbarwas as a terrorist because he did not, quote on quote, “kill a rich white CEO” (in reference to Luigi Mangione being charged with terrorism for the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson). Those users quickly backpedaled when other users corrected them and stated that it was being labeled a terrorist attack; those same people then doubled down on the reasoning and claimed that authorities were only now labelling it as a terrorist attack because the attacker had been confirmed to be Muslim.
The reality is that Jabbarwas was killed on site of the attack, and authorities had discovered that he had two IED’s (independent explosive devices) and were unsure if there could be more planted around the city. Their focus was on protecting the city from another possible attack, not labelling the already dead attacker as anything until they were sure the city was safe.
People are getting too used to having information readily available at their fingertips; it makes it so that when the information isn’t readily available, their desperation sends them to “sources” that are just spewing whatever comes to their heads. Investigations take time, but the way the internet works demands that they happen in seconds or else suddenly conspiracies are popping up left and right.
Taking supposed “facts” you see on the internet with no verifiable source (whether that be from an unreliable public figure or a random fellow internet-user) as inherently correct is beyond dangerous.
Check your sources and check your biases.
You never know when you could be the next person spreading false “facts.”