Flashbacks of 2016 in social media toxicity

Emails of murky origins pop into public view, carrying a possible scent of foreign interference at a critical point of a U. S. presidential election. Bizarre conspiracy theories are posted and shared on social media. Twitter and Facebook, caught between being helpless conduit or gatekeeper of toxic disinformation, are whipsawed by the political winds.

The echoes of 2016 are unmistakable. Social media is flowing with outright falsehoods and dubious allegations — and, this time, the president of the United States is helping promote it.

In the most disgusting exchange of his Thursday night town hall on NBC, Trump was unapologetic about retweeting a conspiracy theory promoted on a farright QAnon account that Navy SEAL Team 6 killed a body double of terrorist Osama bin Laden in May 2011, then President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had the SEALs killed to cover it up.

Pressed by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie ( who did an impressive job as moderator), Trump said the sick theory was “an opinion of somebody and that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there. People can decide for themselves. I don’t take a position.” This from the president who tries to discredit legitimate news organizations as “fake news.” Surely the president had the resources available to readily learn that all SEALs involved in the raid are alive today.

Such spreading of such trash is not just reckless; it is dangerous. A video associated with that article called for the hangings of Obama and Biden. The Twitter account that initially posted the

article has been suspended — an easy call for the social media giant.

The tougher call for Twitter and Facebook emerged in the treatment of a story in the Trumpfriendly New York Post that it had obtained Hunter Biden emails allegedly showing that in 2015 he had arranged for an executive from a Ukrainian energy firm ( which was paying Hunter up to $ 50,000 a month) to meet with the vice president. Twitter initially banned the sharing of links to the article out of concerned that the emails may have been hacked and contained private information in violation of its policies. The Trump campaign’s account was temporarily locked.

Trump and his supporters cried foul, claiming censorship. GOP legislators threatened hearings. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, complained that Twitter was “against us.” By Friday morning, Twitter had caved, allowing the story to flow again on its platform.

The reasons to be skeptical of the Post story are manifold. The emails in question were supposedly on a MacBook laptop that had been dropped off at a repair shop in Wilmington, Del. The owner of the shop, who is legally blind, said he believed ( but was not certain) that it was delivered by Hunter Biden. After the laptop had not been picked up after 90 days, the owner said he checked out its contents, turned it over to the FBI and gave a copy of the hard drive to sometimesTrumplawyer Rudy Giuliani, who gave it to the Post.

Yes, that is the same Giuliani who has been openly digging for dirt about Biden in Ukraine — activities at the root of Trump’s impeachment. NBC news reported Thursday that the FBI was looking into whether the emails were connected to foreign meddling. ( The Washington Post reported Thursday that the White House had been warned by intelligence agencies last year that Giuliani was the target of a Russian influence operation).

Moreover, specialists in digital forensics have raised questions about the authenticity of the emails: anomalies that include the absence of full text with metadata on the screenshots published by the Post to the Americanstyle capitalization of Ukrainian ministries.

The Biden campaign claims to have checked records and found no evidence that such a meeting took place.

It remains to be seen whether the story will be sufficiently corroborated or thoroughly debunked before voting stops on Nov. 3. But there is no doubt that the Trump campaign will continue to trumpet the story of Hunter Biden’s alleged influence peddling between now and then, and will have social media to amplify the echo.

Two words of caution: tweeter beware.

No one needs that reminder more than President Trump. He embarrassed himself early Friday morning by retweeting an article by the satirical Babylon Bee website that stated Twitter shut down its entire network “in a lastditch effort to stop negative stories about Joe Biden and his family from spreading.”

In high dudgeon at 3: 07 a. m., Trump retweeted the satire ( from a site with what should have been the telltale motto, “Fake news you can trust”): “Wow,

this has never been done in history. This includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T.”

As Savannah Guthrie put it, in reference to his defense of his SEAL Team 6 retweet: “You’re the president. You’re not someone’s crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.”

Yet he did, again, within hours of her admonition.

There is peril in thinking you can control the media. The Trump campaign demanded that NBC hold its town hall with him directly opposite Joe Biden’s town hall on ABC Thursday night. Shame on NBC News for catering to the president’s whims after he ducked out of what should have been the second presidential debate that night.

Online at sfchronicle. com/ opinion

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