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Dr. Blasey has been the target of widespread misinformation from social media since she has filed charges of sexual assault against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, a candidate for the Supreme Court.
Just minutes after Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychologist, was charged with sexual assault Against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Internet investigators began to argue over his past for clues to his motives and to question the veracity of his claims.
Since then, Dr. Blasey, as she knows professionally, has been the subject of a flood of false information online. Some viral rumors about Dr. Blasey were quickly debunked. But the misrepresentations continued to spread on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social networks.
Here are some of the most noticeable false and misleading statements about Dr. Blasey, as well as explanations of what is really happening.
Claim: Dr. Blasey's students left negative comments about his profile RateMyProfessors.com, the caller "unprofessional" and citing his "dark" personality.
Verdict: false.
This viral rumor is based on a mistaken identity case. The page RateMyProfessors.com on which these negative reviews were found concerns Christine A. Ford, professor of human services at the University of California at Fullerton. Christine Blasey Ford, the accuser of Judge Kavanaugh, teaches at Palo Alto University.
This story debuted on Grabien, a little-known news site. He was then taken by several right-wing media, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who tweeted a link to her, and the Drudge report, which appeared on her home page. Grabien then published a correction and issued a note from the editor apologizing for the error. But the article has remained online and several other websites have since picked up again.
Claim: Judge Kavanaugh's mother has already ruled against Dr. Blasey's parents in a seizure case.
Verdict: false.
Internet detectives quickly turned to a 22-year-old civil case involving Judge Kavanaugh's mother, Martha Kavanaugh, a Maryland District Court Judge, in which Blasey's parents, Ralph and Paula Blasey, were charged. . Judge Kavanaugh, some have said, had ruled against the Blaseys, costing them their house and creating a motive of revenge for Dr. Blasey.
In 1996, Martha Kavanaugh and Dr. Blasey's parents were seized of a foreclosure case. But according to CBS News, the Blaseys settled with their bank, and Judge Kavanaugh rejected the case. Quoting court records, Snopes noted that Judge Kavanaugh's decision allowed the Blaseys to keep their homes.
But history has nevertheless entered the conservative news sites including Gateway Pundit, who used the title "Bad Blood: Judge Kavanaugh's mother was sent back to the home of the far-left accuser." The story has not been corrected yet.
Allegation: Dr. Blasey brought sexual assault charges against Judge Neil Gorsuch during his appointment process.
Verdict: false.
This claim seems to have originated from a Twitter user, Josh Cornett, who seems to have a long history of amplifying the right misinformation. (The users Account tweeted messages of support for QAnon, a sprawling theory of the pro-Trump plot.)
Tuesday, Mr. Cornett, referring to Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, tweeted: "According to Diane sources [sic] Feinstein's reluctance to mention Kavanaugh's accuser's letter at the confirmation session is due to the fact that similar [sic] letter to Judge Gorsuch last year. In a follow-up tweet, he said he had "no idea" if the information was true, but that "my source was very accurate in the past".
Dr. Blasey did not send any letters about Judge Gorsuch or any other Supreme Court Judge. Yet, the tweet has received more than 7,000 retweets.
Claim: Dr. Blasey is a prominent Democratic donor with a long history of leftist activism.
Verdict: Mostly false.
Some critics of Dr. Blasey quickly described her as a leftist activist and a devoted donor with an ax at all costs.
They said they wrote on Facebook in 2016 that "Scalia guys must be banned from the law." Another variant of this claim also states that "Scalia types must be banned from the courts".
No phrases appear in a search of public Facebook posts in 2016. It is possible that the sentences appeared in publications that have since been removed from Dr. Blasey's accounts. But these claims do not contain links to old messages or any other form of attribution. The account of the Twitter user who seems to have created the claim, @LodgeNixonhas since been removed, and no evidence of the alleged publication of Facebook has emerged.
The memes containing this dubious claim, and several others concerning Dr. Blasey, became viral on Facebook, and were shared among several large private Facebook groups.
It is no secret that Dr. Blasey is a registered Democrat who has donated money to progressive organizations and campaigns. The Washington Post in the original story naming it the accuser of Mr. Kavanaugh. But she seems to be far from a financial backer. According to data from the Federal Election Commission, his donations to democratic committees and campaigns from 2013 to 2017 are less than $ 100.
In addition, a photo broadcast on social media and claiming to be Dr. Blasey holding a "not my president" sign at an anti-Trump rally seems to be misleading. The photo appears on a photo website and the woman on the photo is not identified. Dr. Blasey attended the California Women's Walk in 2017, according to The Mercury News. But the picture below was taken during a march in New York in 2016, according to Alamy, the site of the stock photo
Complaint: Dr. Blasey's brother worked in a law firm with links to the investigation in Russia.
Verdict: deceitful.
The group wrote:
Ford has a brother, Ralph Blasey, who worked for Baker Hostetler, a law firm that retained Fusion GPS, the infamous DC company that produced the unverified Steele record of President Donald Trump and Russia.
The group's theory, which quickly caught the conspirators' attention on the Internet, was that BakerHostetler, the law firm where Dr. Blasey's brother worked, had hired a consulting firm called Fusion GPS as part of an investigation. Russian on money laundering. Several years later, Fusion GPS outsources with a The British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, will produce the infamous record of Russia. As a result, they suggested that Dr. Blasey's brother was related to the investigation in Russia.
It's true that BakerHostetler hired Fusion GPS in a Russian money laundering investigation and Fusion GPS then worked with Mr Steele on the Russian case. But GPS Fusion said there was no connection between his work on the previous case – which involved Prevezon, a Russian holding company based in Cyprus – and the 2016 presidential election.
And according to his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Blasey left the firm in 2004, more than a decade before the start of any investigation into Russian collusion.
Kevin Roose is a columnist for Business Day and a writer at the New York Times Magazine. His column, "The Shift" examines the intersection of technology, business and culture. @kevinroose • Facebook
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