An alarming number of profiles praising Luigi Mangione are fake: analysis

A shocking portion of the social media profiles behind UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s disturbing praise of the accused killer are fake, a new analysis has revealed.

in view of Thompson’s brutal murder in Midtown On December 4, distraught Facebook and X users commemorated the then-unknown killer by posting the hashtag #DenyDefendDepose – Three words found on the bullets used to kill ThompsonAnd a message of resistance against insurance companies.

However, according to an analysis by Israel-based disinformation detection platform Cybra, at least 11% of the social media accounts behind such posts were fake – meaning they were anonymous, suspicious or bot-like in their online behavior.

Additionally, the analysis found that 11% of posts between the two platforms that contained the words “kill” and “healthcare CEO” were posted by fake profiles.

Cybra CEO said that a large number of fake accounts have been found linked to foreign networks. Dan Brahmi told Forbes – a fact that critics have called “disturbing”.

“Social media has long been ground zero for malicious foreign influence operations aimed at polarizing and radicalizing American society,” Rep. Richie Torres (D-New York) said angrily in response to Sciberra’s findings.

Torres added, “As the most powerful nation on Earth, we must avoid allowing foreign adversaries to freely weaponize American institutions.”

To add insult to injury, after Mangione’s arrest on December 9 Pennsylvania McDonald’s After a day-long search, social media was flooded with users condemning the suspected killer – but according to analysis, many of them were also fake.

Overall, of the 2,369 profiles that actively promoted the hashtags “#FreeLuigi” and “#FreeLuigiMangione”, 18% of them were fake, including 80 or 9% of the 834 Facebook profiles and 349 of them. 22% of 1,535 X profiles.

Still, the damage was done: both hashtags received 162,636 engagements and reached 138 million views in just one week.

“Disinformation on this scale is dangerous because it affects psychological and emotional vulnerabilities,” Brahmi said in response to the disturbing findings.

“With 138 million views, these narratives impact everyday users’ understanding by reframing events like this murder moral crusadeBrahmi said, adding that for children, the effect is “particularly troubling, because it can distort their developing sense of justice and truth.”

In fact, a Emerson College Poll The report released this week found that in the wake of the murder and its subsequent reaction, more than 40% of young voters found Thompson’s murder “somewhat” or “completely” acceptable.