Twitter has suspended the account suspected of making go viral the misleadingly edited video of the Lincoln Memorial confrontation involving some Catholic high-school students, an Indian elder and a black hate group. According to a report on CNN Business on Monday evening, Twitter suspended the account of @2020fight shortly after the network began asking questions about its truthfulness and some odd characteristics that suggested it might be a foreign troll. The account posted a minute-long video Friday evening showed a selected portion of the confrontation with the caption, “This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March.” The video already had appeared on the Instagram account of a bystander but, CNN wrote, “it was @2020fight’s caption that helped frame the news cycle.” That version of the video, which did not show what had happened before and which context has caused numerous publications and pundits to walk back their condemnation of the boys from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, was viewed at least 2.5 million times and retweeted at least 14,400 times, CNN Business reported, citing a cached version of the tweet. In addition, numerous news outlets that then made the confrontation the biggest story of the weekend asked @2020fight about the video and who held the rights to it. Rob McDonagh, an assistant editor at Storyful, told CNN the @2020fight video was the main one pushing the social media outrage. According to CNN, the account claimed to be the tweets of a woman named Talia living in California, who set it up in December 2016 and identified herself as “Teacher & Advocate. Fighting for 2020.” However, CNN reported, its profile photo was a blogger based in Brazil — a violation of Twitter’s terms of service, which bar impersonation. There were other suspicious factors, according to Molly McKew, an information warfare researcher who saw the tweet and shared it herself Saturday. She said she “later realized that a network of anonymous accounts were working to amplify the video,” CNN wrote. “This is the new landscape: where bad actors monitor us and appropriate content that fits their needs. They know how to get it where they need to go so it amplifies naturally. And at this point, we are all conditioned to react and engage or deny in specific ways. And we all did,” Ms. McKew told CNN. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.<doc-sep>Twitter has suspended an account with thousands of followers for violating its policy against “fake and misleading accounts,” after it posted a brief clip of the now-notorious encounter between a Native American elder and several high school students wearing Make America Great Again hats. The @2020fight account, which had more than 40,000 followers before it went offline, shared a minute-long video of the incident between Nathan Phillips, a Native American veteran, and protestors from Covington Catholic High School at the Indigenous Peoples March last week. The video sparked an outcry on Twitter, with many users calling the students racist and pushing for their personal information to be leaked online. The clip shared by @2020fight was retweeted more than 14,000 times and racked up 2.5 million views. The account was suspended on Monday afternoon, however, after CNN Business noticed the account was not authentic. The account had a profile picture of a Brazil-based blogger, despite claiming to be run by a California schoolteacher named Talia. A Twitter spokesperson, after confirming the account had been suspended, did not tell TheWrap how long the account would be offline. Also Read: National Review Apologizes to Covington Catholic Students “Deliberate attempts to manipulate the public conversation on Twitter by using misleading account information is a violation of the Twitter Rules,” the spokesperson added. The @2020fight account was a frequent poster before its suspension, averaging 130 tweets per day since it was opened in late 2016, according to CNN. Molly McKew, an information warfare researcher, told CNN the account’s video was amplified by a network of bot accounts. Twitter, like many other social platforms, has looked to combat the spread of fake news following the 2016 U.S. election. The brief video outraged many this past weekend, with many users blasting one teenager for smirking in Phillips’ face. A GQ writer called on his followers to doxx the teenagers — a claim he later retracted — and a Vulture writer expressed his wish to see them die. Hollywood producer Jack Morrissey tweeted a graphic image (inspired by “Fargo”) imaging the Covington students being fed into a wood chipper, something he later apologized for. Comedian Kathy Griffin also called for her followers to doxx the teenagers. “I want NAMES. Shame them,” tweeted Griffin. A much longer version of the incident later caused many to reconsider how they viewed the situation, though. A widely-shared article from Robby Soave at Reason.com on Sunday indicated the students, rather than intentionally invading Phillips’ space, were approached by him as he was banging a drum. The two-hour long video, as Soave pointed out, also called into question whether the students chanted “build the wall,” as Phillips claimed, or said anything racist. Also Read: Covington High Student Says He Never Sought Staredown With Native American Elder Julie Irwin Zimmerman, writing in The Atlantic on Monday, said the incident provided a test — one that she initially”failed.” “Will we learn from it, or will we continue to roam social media, looking for the next outrage fix? Next time a story like this surfaces,” Zimmerman wrote. “I’ll try to sit it out until more facts have emerged. I’ll remind myself that the truth is sometimes unknowable, and I’ll stick to discussing the news with people I know in real life, instead of with strangers whom I’ve never met.”<doc-sep>Twitter suspended a suspicious account that spread a misleading video of a white Catholic high school student wearing a Make America Great Again hat and a Native American man standing face-to-face on the Lincoln Memorial last week — and a tech expert told CNN Business that a network of anonymous accounts worked to make the video go viral. The account claimed to belong to a California schoolteacher, but after the outlet found that the profile photo was of a Brazil-based blogger, it asked Twitter about it — and then the social media giant suspended the account Monday afternoon. More from CNN Business: The account, with the username @2020fight, was set up in December 2016 and appeared to be the tweets of a woman named Talia living in California. "Teacher & Advocate. Fighting for 2020," its Twitter bio read. Since the beginning of this year, the account had tweeted on average 130 times a day and had more than 40,000 followers. Late on Friday, the account posted a minute-long video showing the now-iconic confrontation between a Native American elder and the high school students, with the caption, "This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March." That version of the video was viewed at least 2.5 million times and was retweeted at least 14,400 times, according to a cached version of the tweet seen by CNN Business. Then new video emerged that told a far different story Journalists pounced on the clip, claiming that student Nick Sandmann got in the Native American man's face and that Sandmann's classmates from Covington (Kentucky) Catholic High School surrounded Nathan Phillips — who was beating on a drum and chanting — and were mocking and trying to intimidate him when apparently all he wanted to do was head up the Memorial steps. But additional video emerged — which @2020fight did not include, CNN Business said — showing that, in fact, it was Phillips who approached Sandmann and his classmates, and he had plenty of room to head up the steps prior to the face-to-face standoff. The Covington students had attended the March for Life, which coincided with the Indigenous Peoples March, and Sandmann said in a detailed statement blasting "outright lies" that beforehand he and his classmates "noticed four African American protestors" who made "direct derogatory insults at our school group. The protestors said hateful things. They called us 'racists,' 'bigots,' 'white crackers,' 'faggots,' and 'incest kids.' They also taunted an African American student from my school by telling him that we would 'harvest his organs.' I have no idea what that insult means, but it was startling to hear." Additional video bears out Sandman's latter claim. The suspicious Twitter account with the misleading video was the main viral driver Rob McDonagh — an assistant editor at Storyful, which vets online content — told CNN Business he was monitoring Twitter on Saturday morning and that the @2020fight video was the main version of the incident social media users were sharing. Multiple newsrooms, including some national American outlets, reached out to @2020fight asking about the video, the outlet added, noting that's one indicator of how viral the clip had become. McDonagh added to CNN Business that he believed the account was suspicious due to its "high follower count, highly polarized and yet inconsistent political messaging, the unusually high rate of tweets, and the use of someone else's image in the profile photo." Molly McKew — an information warfare researcher who shared the @2020fight video tweet herself Saturday — told the outlet she soon realized a network of anonymous accounts were working to make the video go viral. "This is the new landscape: where bad actors monitor us and appropriate content that fits their needs," McKew added to CNN Business. "They know how to get it where they need to go so it amplifies naturally. And at this point, we are all conditioned to react and engage or deny in specific ways. And we all did." CNN Business said it was unable to reach the person, or people, behind the suspicious account and that it blocked the outlet's reporter soon after CNN Business told Twitter about the account. What's the latest? President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that Sandmann and his classmates "have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be." "They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together," Trump added. "It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!" Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019 Trump also tweeted Monday night that Sandmann & Co. "were treated unfairly" and "smeared by media" with "false" stories. To that end, a number of journalists and other notable figures reversed their initial positions and apologized for jumping the gun on the false narrative — while others simply deleted their incorrect posts castigating the students over the incident. An entertainment company cut ties with one of its workers after he tweeted that he wanted the Covington students and their parents to die. Two Covington students spoke out against the media Monday via a YouTube video, saying they've been the victims of doxxing and death threats and that "some of these threats include that we should all be locked in the school and it should be burned to the ground, the school being bombed, school shooting threats." CBS News correspondent David Begnaud noted in a video segment that the incident did not take place as originally reported:<doc-sep>
Twitter suspended a suspicious account Monday reportedly responsible for framing the initial media narrative around the Covington Catholic High School students’ confrontation with Nathan Phillips. The social media platform suspended the account with the username @2020fight for suspicious activity after CNN Business alerted Twitter that, while the account bio said it belonged to a California school teacher named Talia, the profile’s picture was that of a blogger from Brazil. Analytics revealed that @2020fight’s post of and caption for a minute long video of the confrontation between the Covington students and Phillips became the main version of the video shared on social media, shaping a narrative that accused the students of bigotry. (RELATED: Catholic Leaders Publicly Condemned School Boys At March For Life, But Remain Silent After Videos Proved Their Innocence) “This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March,” @2020fight’s caption for the video read. The account’s bio described the account user as “Teacher & Advocate. Fighting for 2020.” The account user tweeted an average of 130 times each day to more than 40,000 followers. The account reportedly violated Twitter’s rules, which forbid “fake and misleading accounts.” “Deliberate attempts to manipulate the public conversation on Twitter by using misleading account information is a violation of the Twitter Rules,” a Twitter spokesperson told CNN Business. Rob McDonagh, assistant editor of an online content vetting service called Storyful, noted several suspicious characteristics about @2020fight, including its “high follower count, highly polarized and yet inconsistent political messaging, the unusually high rate of tweets, and the use of someone else’s image in the profile photo.” More suspicious still was the fact that, according to information warfare researcher Molly McKew, a network of anonymous accounts was amplifying @2020fight’s post of the video across social media. The account’s video did not show what preceded the encounter between Phillips and the students, and therefore did not reveal that a black supremacist group called the Black Hebrew Israelites initially accosted the students with profanity and racial slurs before Phillips and his colleagues also approached and confronted the high school students, who tried to drown out the two other groups’ insults with school cheers. Nevertheless, Twitter users retweeted @2020fight’s truncated video and its caption at least 14,400 times and viewed the video at least 2.5 million times. So influential was @2020fight’s post that members of the media reached out directly to the owner of the profile in the course of reporting on the incident. McDonagh said that @2020fight’s post was the primary version of events shared on social media. The post was so successful in helping to shape the narrative that scores of journalists, public officials, priests, bishops, nuns, dioceses, and even the students’ own school publicly denounced the children without reaching out to them for their version of events or waiting for further information about the incident. “This is the new landscape: where bad actors monitor us and appropriate content that fits their needs. They know how to get it where they need to go so it amplifies naturally. And at this point, we are all conditioned to react and engage or deny in specific ways. And we all did,” McKew said. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.