LA braces for more protests as misinformation clouds public perception

Following days of protest over the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and militarised federal forces, downtown Los Angeles remained under curfew this week. The unrest was further fueled by a contentious standoff between California Governor Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump, who ordered Marines into the area.

As demonstrations spread, so did a wave of viral misinformation and memes online, prompting concern among media literacy experts and protest organisers alike.

Peter Adams, senior vice president of research and design at the News Literacy Project, spoke to Mashable, emphasising that major demonstrations are prime targets for online falsehoods. He leads the organisation’s newsletter, RumorGuard, which tracks viral hoaxes and offers media literacy strategies.

“Protests generally only happen around events that are highly polarizing and controversial,” Adams said. “The more polarizing something is, the more people’s political identities are activated and invoked. We know that these identities play a very strong role in how people react to information online. As polarization has increased in American society, this is even more at play.”

Misinformation watchdogs such as the bipartisan organisation NewsGuard have debunked dozens of false claims circulating online. Among them were posts by conservative commentators alleging that Governor Newsom shared an outdated or AI-generated image of National Guard troops in his criticism of Trump’s militarised response. Those claims were amplified by X’s chatbot Grok, which inaccurately stated the photo, originally published by the San Francisco Chronicle, was outdated. ChatGPT also returned mixed results to users seeking clarification, adding to the confusion.

Meanwhile, members of the Trump administration circulated fabricated or misattributed quotes from officials including California Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum. These posts, alongside other partisan misinformation, are part of a larger effort to sway public opinion, Adams noted.

“Viral misinformation expresses patterns over time, and we can learn how to recognize those patterns and inoculate ourselves to a whole swath of viral rumors,” Adams said.

As demonstrators returned to the streets, Adams cautioned the public to be vigilant. Chatbots, often consulted for quick fact-checks, can mislead during rapidly unfolding events. With many social platforms having dismantled internal fact-checking teams, the reliability of AI-powered assistants remains inconsistent.

False narratives about paid protestors are also recurring. On June 10, a fraudulent Craigslist advertisement circulated widely online, offering $6,500 to $12,500 to hire “the toughest badasses in the city” to join the L.A. protests.

Another persistent myth involves protestors supposedly staging piles of bricks in advance to incite violence — a claim repeatedly debunked by fact-checkers.

Furthermore, protest coverage is frequently hijacked by unrelated, outdated, or falsely labelled videos intended to provoke emotional responses. Footage from the 2020 George Floyd protests, for instance, resurfaced after the June 8 Los Angeles demonstrations. Hyperrealistic video game footage and AI-generated imagery have also been misrepresented as real-world news, complicating the public’s ability to distinguish fact from fiction.

Adams also warned against what he terms “stolen satire” — when ironic or fake posts are mistaken for genuine news. The rise of influencers, live streamers, and so-called “citizen journalists” at protests often fuels distrust in professional newsrooms, he said.

“We get into a territory where no one can agree what is real, and that is an environment in which democracy cannot flourish,” Adams said. “Be aware of your emotions. Be wary of user-generated content and unknown sources. Always stop and verify you're not amplifying anything you're not confident is true.”

As the nation prepares for another weekend of large-scale demonstrations, both organisers and observers are urging calm, vigilance, and critical engagement with the media landscape.

By Sabina Mamamdli