False Flag Pelosi - Why the Paul Pelosi Attack Continues to Fuel Conspiracy Theories Fringe websites, tech CEOs, and members of Congress have all spread lies about the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband. The stories they refer to are by no means new.
Police tape can be seen outside the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, on Friday. Paul Pelosi was attacked by intruders in his home. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hidden below
False Flag Pelosi
Police tape can be seen outside the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, on Friday. Paul Pelosi was attacked by intruders in his home.
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News of the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, was quickly clouded by conspiracy theories.
After police confirmed that the suspect in custody was David Depope, reporters quickly discovered the blog posts that he appeared to have written. The authors of these posts espouse right-wing views, including anti-Semitic tropes, lies about the 2020 election, and conspiracy theories about the COVID vaccine. DePape's daughter said
But as details of the story emerged, many prominent media and right-wing figures soon began to question whether the attack had anything to do with someone who shared his faith.
Gateway Pundit, known for publishing false stories, called the attack "another freewheeling lie." Conservative activist Dinesh D'Souza tweeted: "Nothing about the public account so far makes sense."
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Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that he called the attacker a "hippie nudist from Berkeley" and dismissed as "absurd" the idea that the attack was motivated by right-wing ideology. Twitter's new owner, billionaire Elon Musk, has retweeted a story that includes some surprising advice from the popular site. Donald Trump Jr. shared a meme that reinforces the same theme. The trio's posts have since been deleted.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, followed his wife to the Capitol for a weekly press conference in March. Commentary by Andrew Harnick/AP
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, followed his wife to the Capitol for a weekly press conference in March.
Even though the posts have since been deleted and new facts have proven all kinds of falsehoods about the attack, conservative media figures continue to repeat conspiracy theories. Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader since 2003 and the only woman to speak, has long been vilified by Republicans.
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Jared Holt, a researcher on extremism and disinformation at the Neofit Institute for Strategic Dialogue, has been surprised at how quickly mainstream individuals have discovered conspiracy theories.
Earlier this year, Holt reported on Twitter how an unsubstantiated story about a Ukrainian biolab had QAnon implications. This time the conspiracy theory seems to have arisen by itself, without any creator. “After the attack on Paul Pelosi, it seemed to change all at once. Not the same, you know, origin."
Often, many aspects of false narratives are not new. One of the reasons ISD identifies the attack is a so-called false flag operation, where the perpetrator appears to be affiliated with an adversary.
"Alex Jones of Infowars has been talking about false flag attacks for over a decade, and they're happening in real life," said Erin Kearns, assistant professor at the University of Nebraska School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
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Jones, speaking anonymously, said the Sandy Hook school shooting was orchestrated by gun control advocates as an excuse to restrict gun ownership. He was recently ordered to pay more than $1 billion in restitution for these false claims. Fact-checking groups like PolitiFact have rebutted similar false-flag claims after the 2019 shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo, El Paso and Dayton, making them headlines again and again.
The false flag conspiracy to counter right-wing violence became more entrenched after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Holt said. Supporters of former President Donald Trump have argued that the raids were actually carried out by the FBI and other members of the so-called "deep state" to discredit Trump and prevent his re-election.
Many of the conspiracy theories surrounding the Paul Pelosi attack reflect the right to doubt the attacker's motives or ideological influence, Holt said. It can have varying degrees of intensity.
“You know, the deepest narrative is that the CIA set it up to attack conservatives. And then there's the more hygienic version of, you know, just asking questions, thinking about what's going on here, and actually having facts."
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Erin Miller, director of the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland, said the conspiracy theory also obscured the fact that the attack on Pelo was an act of right-wing domestic terrorism. He fears the plans could become a conduit for radicalisation, especially as the country heads into yet another polarizing election.
"It's just part of a broader effort to demonize and cast others in a negative light," Miller said. Each leader described the other as incompetent. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images
A doctored video purporting to show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lip-smacking will remain on the social network because false information does not violate the site's rules, Facebook said Friday.
"We remove content from Facebook that violates our community standards, and we have no policy that what you post on Facebook must be true," a company spokesperson said in a statement shared with Facebook.
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However, the social network said it would significantly reduce the video's distribution in Facebook users' feeds and add content from third-party fact-checkers who were asked by Facebook to review the video. Politifact, one of two fact-checkers, named the video "Pants," reserved for the worst lies that claim to be "ridiculous."
The video, posted on a Facebook page by Politics WatchDog, drew media attention after it was first spotted by The Washington Post on Thursday, and no fact-checking information had been flagged as of Friday afternoon. At that time, it had 2.5 million views.
The video, which uses real footage of Pelosi (D-Calif.), has gone viral since Thursday. It comes amid a bitter battle between Pelosi and President Donald Trump, with each leader portraying the other as incompetent. It's the latest chapter in a debate over how companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube should police the web for problematic content.
Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, tweeted the video on Thursday. He later deleted the tweet, but later appeared to defend it, writing: “Nancy Pelosi wants to apologize for her exaggeration of her halting speech pattern. Accused of harming our entire country.
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Facebook on Friday reiterated its earlier statements regarding similar incidents, including last year's handling of a pattern of defamation and misinformation by right-wing provocateur Alex Jones (whose flagship InfoWars account was later banned from Facebook). The statement added that Facebook "reduces the spread of misinformation" strikes the right balance between free speech and safety, concluding that some misinformation, "we allow people to post it as a form of expression, but we don't display it at the top of the news page."
YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, decided otherwise, saying in a statement: “YouTube has clear policies on what content is unacceptable, and we remove videos that violate these policies when reported. These videos violate our policies and have been removed. In fact, search results for Nancy Pelosi and the following group include videos from reputable sources, often at the top."
Facebook's decision on Friday angered some Pelosi allies on the Capitol. Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, tweeted: “Hey @facebook, you're busy. Fix it again!” said.
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