I wrote for @WIRED about the #antifa rumors that besieged the tiny logging town of Forks, Washington. The result: townspeople took chainsaws to trees to block a multiracial camping family in the woods.
https://www.wired.com/story/antifa-social-media-rumor-forks-washington/ (Thread)

2/ The path of online disinformation into hearts and minds is often hard to see, but I drove out to rural Washington - in a rental car w/ my facemask and hand sanitizer - to find out how the effects of #disinformation had turned frighteningly real-world.

3/ I arrived in Forks, the backdrop of the #Twilight books, on the heels of @Randazzotweet’s viral thread, @AnnaMerlan’s in-depth @VICE story, @PenDailyNews reports and excellent reporting about antifa rumors vs. reality during this summer of #BLM protests.

4/ The ripple effect of a tweet about antifa coming to “white hoods”-- outed by @Twitter as written by a white supremacist group -- paired with Trump’s antifa bluster and burning buildings on the news, laid the perfect landscape for the rumor of incoming rioters to catch fire.

5/ I found that some in the county stuck with their version – that antifa had been lurking that day – bending details to fit their reality. Others felt varying degrees of repentance about getting caught up in and passing the rumor on @Facebook.

6/ People’s relationship with #Facebook is complicated:
right-wingers despised the increasing fact-checking of their posts while still using it to reach their audience. Some non-voters in 2016 had turned into Trump supporters after shrill FB spats with liberals.

7/ Burned by passing on false #antifa rumors, some quit #Facebook completely.

8/ I found Forks is no monolith: People debated how much this had to do w/ race or #implicitbias, and many claimed it had nothing to do w/ race at all. Still, so many Forks folks were disgusted with the actions of the pursuers out in the woods. The shame crossed political lines.

9/ Speaking of electoral politics, I was surprised by the amount of dissent, even deep in Forks’ Trump country. #Democrats have a presence, neighbors disagreed, and even families were split. As one mom described her son’s #MAGA cap: “Stupid hat.”

10/ I came away thinking this story in a tiny town said a lot about the state of the union right now, in the grueling months leading to the #2020Election, both online and off. I hope you’ll give it a read.

11/ Thanks to everyone in Forks and Clallam County who cared enough about this event to talk to me. Much gratitude to my fantastic editor @vtitunik, research gladiator @caitharr, photographer @ianallenworks + editor @_laurenjoseph -- an A+ @WIRED team.