{"id":203,"date":"2018-02-27T11:02:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T16:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=203"},"modified":"2018-03-01T13:53:10","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T18:53:10","slug":"we-studied-thousands-of-anonymous-posts-about-the-parkland-attack-and-found-a-conspiracy-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=203","title":{"rendered":"We studied thousands of anonymous posts about the Parkland attack \u2014 and found a conspiracy in the making"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video\/c\/embed\/50ecbc22-14f4-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a\" width=\"480\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<section id=\"top-content\" class=\"col-lg-12 col-md-12 col-sm-10 col-xs-10 col-xs-offset-1 col-sm-offset-1 col-md-offset-0 col-lg-offset-0 layout\">\n<div class=\"pb-container\">\n<div id=\"f0yerBAegonOKq\" class=\"moat-trackable pb-f-theme-normal pb-f-dehydrate-false pb-f-async-false pb-feature pb-layout-item pb-f-article-article-topper\" data-chain-name=\"no-name\" data-feature-name=\"no-name\" data-feature-id=\"article\/article-topper\" data-pb-fingerprint=\"0f2iLQhOKq3\">\n<div class=\"border-bottom-off border-bottom-100-pct\">\n<div id=\"article-topper\" class=\"article-topper \">\n<div>\n<div id=\"topper-headline-wrapper\" class=\"col-xs-12 col-sm-8 col-lg-9\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"main-content\" class=\"col-xl-9 col-lg-8 col-md-8 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 col-xs-offset-0 col-sm-offset-0 col-md-offset-0 col-lg-offset-0 layout\">\n<div id=\"fMxsbY1egonOKq\" class=\"moat-trackable pb-f-theme-normal pb-f-dehydrate-false pb-f-async-false full pb-feature pb-layout-item pb-f-article-article-body\" data-chain-name=\"no-name\" data-feature-name=\"no-name\" data-feature-id=\"article\/article-body\" data-pb-fingerprint=\"0fyOONiOKqJ\">\n<div id=\"article-body\" class=\"article-body content-format-default\">\n<div class=\"inline-content inline-video\">\n<div class=\"wpv-wrap 50ecbc22-14f4-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a_wrap\">\n<div class=\"wpv-fixed\">\n<div id=\"powa-50ecbc22-14f4-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a-0\" class=\"posttv-video-embed powa powa-processed small wpv-sticky\" data-org=\"wapo\" data-uuid=\"50ecbc22-14f4-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a\" data-ad-bar=\"1\" data-playthrough=\"1\" data-blurb=\"1\" data-object-id=\"5a89f2bfe4b08ea259186c43\" data-youtube-id=\"\" data-live=\"0\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-nth-video-on-page=\"0\" data-mpulse=\"true\" data-preload=\"metadata\" data-autoinit=\"true\" data-autoinit-ads=\"1\" data-sticky-player-mobile=\"0\" data-autoplay-fallback=\"muted\" data-autorun=\"true\" data-device-class=\"deskweb\" data-viewable-fired=\"true\">\n<div id=\"powa-50ecbc22-14f4-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a-0-powa-pane\" class=\"powa-pane\">\n<div class=\"powa-shot-masthead\">\n<div class=\"powa-shot-title shadow franklin-light\">Florida students announce \u2018March for Our Lives\u2019<span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"powa-blurb-wrap powa-blurb inline-video-caption\">\n<p class=\"franklin-light\"><span class=\"powa-tease\">Students of the Florida school where 17 people died last week announced nationwide marches for gun control on March 24.<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"powa-byline franklin-light\">(Patrick Martin\/The Washington Post)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pb-sig-line hasnt-headshot has-0-headshots hasnt-bio is-not-column\"><span class=\"pb-byline\">By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/craig-timberg\/\">Craig Timberg<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/drew-harwell\/\">Drew Harwell<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"pb-timestamp\">February 27 at 7:08 PM<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"pb-tool email\"><a href=\"mailto:craig.timberg@washpost.com;drew.harwell@washpost.com?subject=Reader%20feedback%20for%20%27We%20studied%20thousands%20of%20anonymous%20posts%20about%20the%20Parkland%20attack%20%E2%80%94%20and%20found%20a%20conspiracy%20in%20the%20making%27\"><span class=\"envelope-label\">Email the author<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<article class=\"paywall\">Forty-seven minutes after news broke of a high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the posters on the anonymous chat board 8chan had devised a plan to bend the public narrative to their own designs: \u201cStart looking for\u00a0[Jewish] numerology and crisis actors.\u201dThe voices from this dark corner of the Internet quickly coalesced around a plan of attack: Use details gleaned from news reports and other sources to push false information about one of America\u2019s deadliest school shootings.The posters on anonymous forums, a cauldron of far-right extremist politics, over the next few hours speculated about the shooter\u2019s ethnicity (\u201cHope the kid isn\u2019t white\u201d) and cracked off-color jokes. They began crafting false explanations about the massacre, including that actors were posing as students, in hopes of blunting what they correctly guessed would be a revived interest in gun control.<span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span>The success of this effort would soon illustrate how lies that thrive on raucous online platforms increasingly shape public understanding of major events. As much of the nation mourned, the story concocted on anonymous chat rooms soon burst onto YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, where the theories surged in popularity.Amid corporate efforts to beat back the falsehoods, the episode became the latest cautionary tale about how the Internet itself had become a potent tool of deception wielded by political extremists, disinformation warriors and conspiracy theorists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"interstitial-link\"><i>[<a title=\"www.washingtonpost.com\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-switch\/wp\/2018\/02\/25\/parkland-shooting-crisis-actor-videos-lead-users-to-a-conspiracy-ecosystem-on-youtube-new-research-shows\/?utm_term=.c0bc52779531\" shape=\"rect\">Crisis actor\u2019 videos lead users to a \u2018conspiracy ecosystem\u2019 on YouTube, new research shows<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a war going on outside, no man is safe from,\u201d said a frequent conspiracy theory poster on the website Reddit, the day after the shooting. \u201cAnd it is only partially being fought with guns. The real weapon is information and the attack is on the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Washington Post review of thousands of posts on sites such as\u00a08chan, 4chan and Reddit showed how people on online forums worked aggressively to undermine news reports about a troubled teen accused of killing 17 people, most of them students.<\/p>\n<p>Former YouTube engineer Guillaume Chaslot referred to coordinated campaigns across online platforms to spread a video as \u201c4chan attacks\u201d because such anonymous forums often served as staging grounds for these efforts. YouTube and Facebook have policies against harassment that served as the basis for removing some of the conspiracy theories. But Chaslot said the companies have not done enough to weed out deceptive content.<\/p>\n<p>The Parkland story line took advantage of emerging details about the surviving students \u2014 and even how they looked or talked during interviews with television reporters \u2014 to portray them as \u201ccrisis actors\u201d playing the roles of victims in a \u201cfalse flag\u201d attack, a hoax designed to mislead the public and build support for gun control.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign threatens to leave long-lasting scars on students and their families, who find themselves linked online to damaging and unsubstantiated theories in havens of misinformation across the Web. Survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 and victims\u2019 families still are haunted by these online echoes of their trauma, experts say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe parents and the families of these murdered children are still being harassed by people online,\u201d said Joan Donovan, a researcher at the think tank Data &amp; Society who studies media ma\u00adnipu\u00adla\u00adtion. \u201cThat is the legacy of this kind of harassment. For years to come, these students in Parkland are going to have to suffer this same fate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video\/c\/embed\/26b14c38-127f-11e8-a68c-e9374188170e\" width=\"480\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-content inline-video\">\n<div id=\"powa-26b14c38-127f-11e8-a68c-e9374188170e-1\" class=\"posttv-video-embed powa powa-processed small\" data-ad-bar=\"1\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-blurb=\"1\" data-live=\"0\" data-object-id=\"5a85d32ee4b08ea25917f523\" data-org=\"wapo\" data-playthrough=\"1\" data-uuid=\"26b14c38-127f-11e8-a68c-e9374188170e\" data-youtube-id=\"\" data-nth-video-on-page=\"1\" data-mpulse=\"true\" data-preload=\"metadata\" data-autoinit=\"true\" data-sticky-player-mobile=\"0\" data-autoplay-fallback=\"muted\" data-autorun=\"true\" data-device-class=\"deskweb\" data-viewable-fired=\"true\">\n<div id=\"powa-26b14c38-127f-11e8-a68c-e9374188170e-1-powa-pane\" class=\"powa-pane\">\n<div class=\"powa-shot-masthead\">\n<div class=\"powa-shot-title shadow franklin-light\">Parkland student David Hogg: &#8216;Blood is being spilled on the floors of American classrooms.&#8217;<\/div>\n<div class=\"powa-shot-sharing\">\n<div class=\"franklin-bold powa-shot-sharing-embed powa-shot-sharing-item\">\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"franklin-bold powa-shot-sharing-social powa-shot-sharing-item\">\n<div>\u00a0<span class=\"powa-tease\" style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">David Hogg survived the Florida shooting and is demanding that Congress take action to stop it from happening again.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"powa-byline franklin-light\" style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">(Whitney Shefte, Jorge Ribas\/The Washington Post)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Parkland student David Hogg, 17, emerged as the centerpiece of the \u201ccrisis actor\u201d myth, in part because his father is a retired FBI agent, allowing the \u201cfalse flag\u201d idea to merge with ongoing conservative attacks on the bureau related to its investigation of President Trump\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"interstitial-link\"><i>[<a title=\"www.washingtonpost.com\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/technology\/how-a-survivor-of-the-florida-school-shooting-became-the-victim-of-an-online-conspiracy\/2018\/02\/21\/d54083a0-172e-11e8-b681-2d4d462a1921_story.html?utm_term=.a191c61738c2\" shape=\"rect\">How a survivor of the Florida school shooting became the victim of an online conspiracy<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n<p>There was little sign on the chat boards of any unease about singling out Parkland survivors and their families for personal attacks. Instead the mood seemed jubilant, with posters celebrating that the campaign had reached a broader audience of \u201cnormies,\u201d meaning people who typically keep their distance from racist, anti-Semitic and far-right extremist conversation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust wanted to say thanks for all your digging and research,\u201d one poster wrote on 8chan. <strong>\u201cExtra thanks if you\u2019re spreading info or memes about this kid. It\u2019s already breaking through the normie-sphere. KEEP PUSHING!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Anonymous online forums have long incubated politically extreme, racially charged conversation with few rules or concessions to good taste. <strong>On 4chan, founded in 2003 and now owned by a Japanese businessman, such chats typically happen on the \/pol\/ \u2014 for \u201cpolitically incorrect\u201d \u2014 message board. 8chan, founded in 2013 by those who considered 4chan too restrictive, also has its own \/pol\/ board, where the exchanges play out under the heading, \u201cOn the jews and Their Lies.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A person who responded to 8chan\u2019s administrative email said the board is totally anonymous and allows anyone to \u201cread what users are saying, unfiltered. .\u2009.\u2009. The 8chan administration is irrelevant and unrelated in this matter.\u201d 4chan didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Reddit is typically regarded as more mainstream, but the individual message boards, including \u201cr\/The_Donald\u201d and \u201cr\/conspiracy,\u201d hosted harsh attacks on the Parkland students. The site in 2016 closed its thriving \u201cPizzagate\u201d conspiracy theory message board, a leading source of allegations that a child molestation ring run by Democratic Party luminaries operated out of a Washington pizza shop that led to\u00a0<a title=\"www.washingtonpost.com\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/public-safety\/pizzagate-gunman-sentenced-to-four-years-in-prison-as-prosecutors-urged-judge-to-deter-vigilante-justice\/2017\/06\/22\/a10db598-550b-11e7-ba90-f5875b7d1876_story.html?utm_term=.0266d743c7cd\" shape=\"rect\">a real shooting in which no one was hurt<\/a>. Reddit declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say it\u2019s difficult to know whether any single message board was decisive in pushing conspiracy theories about the Parkland shooting to prominence on YouTube and other mainstream sites. But Donovan, the Data &amp; Society researcher, <strong>said far-right sites are increasingly capi\u00adtal\u00adizing on current story lines to promote hyperpartisan claims, unsubstantiated conspiracy theories and media attacks in order to boost their audiences and advertising revenue.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u201cYou don\u2019t have to know the truth,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just as effective to hint that a conspiracy is afoot.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"subhead\">The effort begins<\/div>\n<p>As coverage of the Feb. 14 shooting spread rapidly on TV news and across the Web, the posters of 8chan\u2019s \/pol\/ board were among the first to begin assembling scraps of what they claimed was proof of a hoax. They criticized how the students acted, mocked how they looked and shared crude memes and photos taken from the students\u2019 social-media accounts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By the end of that first day, the<\/strong> <strong>conspiracy theorist Alex Jones raised the possibility on his Infowars show that the shooting was a \u201cfalse flag\u201d attack.<\/strong> In a later interview, Jones said he soon became convinced that the attack was real, even though he continued to raise questions about other aspects of its portrayal on mainstream news reports.<\/p>\n<p>But the \u201cfalse flag\u201d idea rapidly was gaining popularity online. Within hours, \u201ccrisis actor\u201d theories could be found in a surging network of YouTube videos, tweets and forum threads picking apart public information about the students and urging more intense scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"interstitial-link\"><i>[<a title=\"www.washingtonpost.com\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-intersect\/wp\/2018\/02\/21\/for-a-moment-youtubes-top-trending-video-was-promoting-a-parkland-conspiracy-theory\/?utm_term=.68507f84e86e\" shape=\"rect\">YouTube promoted a video that falsely attacked a Parkland student. How did it happen?<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n<p>The political stakes were explicit. One poster on 4chan said in all-caps fury, \u201cHILLARY IS TRYING TO TAKE OUR GUNS AWAY XD!!!!!!!!!!!\u201d (\u201cXD\u201d is commonly used on message boards to suggest laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>On 8chan, posters fretted over the potential political consequences of images the suspect, Nikolas Cruz, posted to his Instagram page including guns, a box of ammunition and a picture of himself wearing a red \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hat. One poster said, \u201canother \u2018gun nut\u2019 narrative incoming.\u201d Another said, \u201cthat maga hat is going to get trump lynched in the media if it turns out to be this kid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A day after the shooting, though, the anonymous posters were back on the offensive.<\/p>\n<p>In interviews, Hogg mentioned that his father had worked for the FBI, a revelation treated by the far-right online ecosystem as a smoking gun worthy of widespread sharing in tweets and memes. A woman that same day posted a video analyzing the students\u2019 body language and fiercely criticized Hogg\u2019s comments in one interview as those of a \u201cpsychopath.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Different posters also began clashing with each other about how to promote their preferred spin on the story. When users succeeded in falsely convincing some researchers and journalists that the shooter was an active member of a white-supremacist group, using a tactic Donovan calls \u201csource hacking,\u201d one 8chan user posted a \u201cDamage Control Thread.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will double down on this being another attack against white interests,\u201d the anonymous person wrote, urging that images of Cruz be altered before posting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMake them darker in photoshop, and make his lips and nose thicker and wider a small bit,\u201d<\/strong> the poster wrote. \u201cEnough to where he looks even more non-white, but not enough that it\u2019s too noticeable.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"subhead\">A backlash grows<\/div>\n<p>By Feb. 16, two days after the shooting, the hunt for information was intensifying. \u201c<strong>This Dave Hoggs keeps showing up on TV,\u201d said one poster on Reddit that day. \u201cThere\u2019s something wrong with this guy. He needs to be investigated. WE NEED TO DIG!\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Memes with Hogg\u2019s face tagged as \u201cSon of FBI agent\u201d were spreading widely on Twitter by the next day. And on Feb. 18, users were cheering the surprising speed with which they were able to shape the story line.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMan, I just gotta say, on our progress around these events is quite remarkable,\u201d one 8chan poster wrote that day. It\u2019s \u201cmarvelous to see non centralized actors .\u2009.\u2009. produce so many counter points, so fast, with zero centrally planned coordination.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The poster added, \u201c<strong>At this point I think we managed to get into a 1.5 .\u2009.\u2009. to 2 :1 ratio of information warfare for OUR advantage, compared to the jews.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The claims about Hogg also spread to conservative websites such as Gateway Pundit (headlined \u201cEXPOSED\u201d), the social network Gab.ai (\u201cspread it everywhere, this is the proof\u201d) and Reddit forums like \u201cr\/The_Donald.\u201d One post there, a photo of Hogg, carried a caption suggesting he was smiling because he saw his \u201cfellow students get murdered but [he] got famous from it.\u201d Users of the site registered their approval more than 3,800 times.<\/p>\n<p>By Feb. 20, less than a week after the shooting, some online posters said they\u2019d clinched a win when Benjamin Kelly, an aide to a Florida state representative,\u00a0<a title=\"www.washingtonpost.com\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/politics\/wp\/2018\/02\/20\/a-lawmakers-aide-called-school-shooting-survivors-actors-within-hours-he-was-fired\/?utm_term=.8747bd16f08d\" shape=\"rect\">touted conspiracy theories about the shooting<\/a>\u00a0to a Tampa Bay Times reporter, leading to the aide\u2019s firing. But the biggest surge of popularity came a day later, when YouTube\u2019s no. 1 \u201cTrending\u201d video labeled Hogg an \u201cactor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hogg soon disputed the allegation that he was a \u201ccrisis actor\u201d on CNN. Posters on anonymous forums saw the development as evidence they were on the right track.<\/p>\n<p>There also was a backlash brewing. YouTube blocked videos pushing allegations about the Parkland students being \u201ccrisis actors\u201d as violating its harassment policy. Jones said several of his Infowars videos were among those blocked, a move he called an unwarranted attack on his right to free speech.<\/p>\n<p>Jones was unrepentant, however, in alleging that the students \u2014 even if they were authentic survivors of a mass shooting \u2014 were being coached as part of a politically motivated gun-control campaign. \u201cT<strong>hese are young adults who are putting themselves out there into the public realm,\u201d Jones said. \u201cParents who put their kids out on TV knew what that comes with. .\u2009.\u2009. Free speech is a rough thing.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He was not alone in that view.<\/p>\n<p>A poster on 8chan soon advanced a battle plan. <strong>\u201cWe Go to War. Gather any dirt we can find on the leaders and their parents &#8230; Disprove, Disrupt, Discredit, Disinfo, Discourage, Demotivate, Deny. Sabotage the movement,\u201d the poster wrote.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The poster also was preparing for a change in tactics if the politics began to shift.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIf the movement falls out of focus, let [it] burn out. That is; don\u2019t keep attacking once everyone is forgetting about them, let them fade away into obscurity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But the conspiracy theory about Hogg and other Parkland students was not fading away, others noticed. It had broken into the mainstream and seemed destined to continue drawing attention.<\/p>\n<p>A poster on one conspiracy-themed Reddit forum wrote on Feb. 22 \u2014 eights days after the shooting \u2014 \u201cComment section on David Hogg\u2019s latest Instagram post is INCREDIBLE. Close to 90% of the comments calling him out for what he is! THE GREAT AWAKENING. This just gave my so much hope to see patriots from all walks of life coming together and standing for truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Ba Tran contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"fBq6x51egonOKq\" class=\"moat-trackable pb-f-theme-normal pb-f-dehydrate-false pb-f-async-false full pb-feature pb-layout-item pb-f-article-article-author-bio\" data-chain-name=\"no-name\" data-feature-name=\"no-name\" data-feature-id=\"article\/article-author-bio\" data-pb-fingerprint=\"0f7Y1cjOKqD\">\n<div class=\"pb-bottom-author-wrapper border-bottom-hairline border-bottom-100-pct\">\n<div class=\"pb-bottom-author hide-images\">\n<div class=\"pb-author-info col-sm-offset-2\">\n<div class=\"pb-author-bio\">Craig Timberg is a national technology reporter for The Washington Post.<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/follow?screen_name=craigtimberg\"><i class=\"fa fa-twitter\"><\/i>\u00a0Follow @craigtimberg<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pb-bottom-author hide-images\">\n<div class=\"pb-author-info col-sm-offset-2\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pb-author-bio\">Drew Harwell is a national technology reporter for The Washington Post, covering artificial intelligence and big data. He previously covered national business and the Trump companies.<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/follow?screen_name=drewharwell\"><i class=\"fa fa-twitter\"><\/i>\u00a0Follow @drewharwell<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida students announce \u2018March for Our Lives\u2019\u00a0 Students of the Florida school where 17 people died last week announced nationwide marches for gun control on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weapons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_13-48-01.jpg?fit=481%2C270&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-3h","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":499,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=499","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":0},"title":"Sterling Heights teen charged with threatening school amid uptick in threats nationwide","author":"Donnie","date":"March 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Ann Zaniewski and\u00a0Christal Hayes, Detroit Free PressPublished 7:01 p.m. ET March 7, 2018 |\u00a0Updated 8:14 p.m. ET March 7, 2018 A 17-year-old Sterling Heights teen has been charged with threatening a high school, the latest in a string of similar incidents since a deadly school shooting last month in Parkland,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Domestic Terrorism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Domestic Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-08_09-13-51.jpg?fit=533%2C680&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-08_09-13-51.jpg?fit=533%2C680&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-08_09-13-51.jpg?fit=533%2C680&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":755,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=755","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":1},"title":"Thousands gather in Washington, other US cities for anti-gun protests","author":"Donnie","date":"March 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By Ashraf Khalil and Calvin Woodward\u00a0ASSOCIATED PRESS\u00a0\u00a0MARCH 24, 2018 NICHOLAS KAMM\/FP\/GETTY IMAGES Ralliers arrived for the March For Our Lives event against gun violence in Washington on Saturday. WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Summoned to action by student survivors of the Florida school shooting, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Domestic Terrorism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Domestic Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-24_14-41-17.jpg?fit=786%2C478&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-24_14-41-17.jpg?fit=786%2C478&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-24_14-41-17.jpg?fit=786%2C478&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-24_14-41-17.jpg?fit=786%2C478&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":725,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=725","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":2},"title":"Banning assault weapons is effective \u2014 and not all that complicated","author":"Donnie","date":"March 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"OPINION | GEORGE J. MITCHELL DOMINICK REUTER\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES Rifles for sale at a gun shop in Merrimack, N.H. Support for background checks for gun purchases and a ban on sales of assault weapons have reached new highs among US voters. By George J. Mitchell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0MARCH 23, 2018 Mass shootings have become\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weapons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weapons","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-23_20-50-56.jpg?fit=787%2C503&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-23_20-50-56.jpg?fit=787%2C503&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-23_20-50-56.jpg?fit=787%2C503&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-23_20-50-56.jpg?fit=787%2C503&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":261,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=261","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":3},"title":"Georgia&#8217;s Republican lieutenant governor threatens Delta over cutting its NRA ties","author":"Donnie","date":"February 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A passenger walks past a Delta Airlines 747 aircraft at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Mich. Delta is joining other companies that have cut ties with the National Rifle Association after a school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Over a dozen companies including Metlife, Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Best Western,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weapons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weapons","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_10-12-24.jpg?fit=820%2C459&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_10-12-24.jpg?fit=820%2C459&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_10-12-24.jpg?fit=820%2C459&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_10-12-24.jpg?fit=820%2C459&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":490,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=490","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":4},"title":"With Gun Control Nearing a Dead End, G.O.P. Turns to \u2018School Safety\u2019","author":"Donnie","date":"March 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Republican leaders, turning away from significant gun control legislation, have shifted instead toward measures that would beef up security at the nation\u2019s schools, hoping the push will quell public uproar over the recent massacre in Parkland, Fla. But as students and parents from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weapons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weapons","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-08_08-49-13.jpg?fit=739%2C552&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-08_08-49-13.jpg?fit=739%2C552&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-08_08-49-13.jpg?fit=739%2C552&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-08_08-49-13.jpg?fit=739%2C552&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":791,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=791","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":5},"title":"Gun Marches Keep Republicans on Defense in Midterm Races","author":"Donnie","date":"March 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0ALEXANDER BURNS\u00a0and\u00a0JONATHAN MARTIN\u00a0MARCH 25, 2018 Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, a Republican who has criticized President Trump, in Los Angeles last week. He warned on Sunday that voters \u201cdo want changes\u201d on gun policy.\u00a0CreditDamian Dovarganes\/Associated Press The passionate gun-control rallies that brought out large crowds around the country over the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-25_19-39-07.jpg?fit=763%2C506&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-25_19-39-07.jpg?fit=763%2C506&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-25_19-39-07.jpg?fit=763%2C506&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-25_19-39-07.jpg?fit=763%2C506&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}