The shooter was confirmed as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos
A transgender woman has suffered horrendous abuse after being wrongly accused of being the Texas school shooter by right-wing trolls.
Following the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the infamous website 4chan became a hive of misinformation once more.
https://twitter.com/MattBinder/status/1529244568805416960
Sam, 20 from Georgia, was assaulted with transphobic abuse as her pictures were shared across the internet by conspiracy theorists who claimed she was to blame for the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 19 children.
https://twitter.com/trans_safety/status/1529359853994627073
“This isn’t the first time I was harassed, but it is the first time I’ve been accused of murder,” she told
NBC. Unfortunately, the misinformation is continuing to spread - and with it, images of two other unrelated trans women.
“People are threatening me and harassing me for no reason. They are actively trying to ruin my life instead of helping the families who were affected," Sam
told the i. “I am being attacked unjustly for no reason. I am being harassed and accused of murder with no evidence. And all I’ve done was live my life. I don’t want fame, I just want to live without being attacked when I leave my house.”
That isn't to say that the abuse was sectioned only to the dark depths of the internet, as Republican congressman Paul Gosar added fuel to the fire.
“It’s a transsexual leftist illegal alien," he tweeted before deleting his post hours later when the real shooter was identified.
https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1529265590220775424
The Young Conservatives of Southern Indiana Facebook page, which has more than 4,000 followers, also shared an image of Sam. Other right-wing commentators have shared statements connecting trans women to the shooting.
For instance, Candace Owens, who has before shared misinformation, said she had seen “cross-dressing” images of the shooter.
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