Conservative News Sites Falsely Claim Black Lives Matter Protested Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts
In a new wave of fake news, a false story about the Black Lives Matter movement impeding Hurricane Harvey rescue efforts are making the rounds on conservative news sites and Facebook pages.
The viral story used a false headline and an image from a 2015 Black Lives Matter protest in Boston. Upon clicking the Facebook link, however, viewers are redirected to a different story about the Texas Young Democrats protesting Trump’s arrival to Austin, Texas, on behalf of hurricane victims.
A hyperpartisan conservative site used a photo from 2015 to falsely claim that Black Lives Matter blocked… https://t.co/cCXTj1pJ5f— Craig Silverman (@Craig Silverman) 1504182138
This isn’t the first fake claim that BLM interfered with relief efforts. A few days back, a “satirical” website called OurLandOfTheFree.com published the same claim, though they disclose on their homepage that all stories are fake. It's unclear if the two incidents are linked.
In complete contradiction with the claims, members of Black Lives Matter Houston are actually contributing to relief efforts, collecting food and supplies to bring to shelters for children and their families.
[facebook https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBLMHOU%2Fposts%2F1991304624482966&width=500 expand=1]
According to Buzzfeed, by 11 AM on Friday, the story had 120,000 shares across ten conservative Facebook pages with a collective 12 million fans.
