Right-Wing Influencers Have Flooded Minneapolis -- WIRED

[ancianita]

non paywall includes more links on rw "news" embedding with ICE
https://archive.ph/as95O

"...right-wing creators and influencers like Nick Sortor and Cam Higby have descended on Minneapolis, filming protesters and interviewing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. So far, they’ve produced a steady stream of content that appears designed to paint Minneapolis as a lawless city, and the actions of ICE agents like Jonathan Ross, who reportedly shot and killed Good, as self-defense.
“HELL YES! ICE just SMASHED a leftist activist’s car window in and pulled them out after they interfered in ICE’s operations in Minneapolis. MORE OF THIS!” Sortor posted to X on Sunday, “Consequences must be STEEP!”

These creators have focused much of their content on how protesters are allegedly using personal vehicles and blocking traffic to obstruct ICE operations. In one video posted on Friday, Kevin Posobiec, a creator for the far-right Human Events website, highlighted how protesters seemingly shut down traffic in downtown Minneapolis.
“Protestors are in hi-vis safety vests manipulating traffic. We’re out here,” he posted.

Once these clips are posted to platforms like X, right-wing aggregation accounts, like End Wokeness and other influencers, including Matt Walsh from the Daily Wire, repost them to their millions of followers. These clips then become talking points across social media, sometimes making it to cable television channels where they become primary evidence in attempts to justify the Trump administration’s surge on American cities.

The content has seemingly followed the same narrative as what’s coming directly out of the DHS...Last month, The Washington Post reported that the agency is planning to spend around $100 million to use content creators and geo-targeted ads across the internet to help recruit future deportation officers."

[flvegan]

1. "We out here making content for morons, now smash that like button!"

Clout isn't gonna chase itself. It requires these imbeciles to continue the grift. Like, subscribe, ring the bell, re-tweet, grift, grift, grift.

[Sogo]

2. Isn't there some kind of law against inciting violence and lawlessness?

nt/

[ancianita]

3. If it's called "news coverage," probably not. WE know it's paid PR for DHS, and probably covered by 1A.

The First Amendment provides broad protection for speech that could be characterized as propaganda, particularly when it originates from private citizens or groups. The government cannot suppress speech simply because it is unpopular, offensive, or contains false information. Even false statements made in the context of public debate are largely protected, provided they do not fall into specific, narrow exceptions like defamation, fraud, or false advertising.

Exceptions and Limitations

Incitement: Speech intended and likely to incite "imminent lawless action".
True Threats: Statements where the speaker communicates a serious intent to commit unlawful violence.
Defamation: False statements of fact that harm a person's reputation, subject to high standards of proof for public figures.
Fraud and False Advertising: The government can regulate speech integral to illegal conduct or deceptive commercial practices.

The "government speech doctrine" means that the First Amendment does not apply to the government's own speech, allowing it to disseminate its own messages and information to promote its missions and accomplishments without violating the First Amendment rights of citizens who may disagree.

And so we sane folk turn to watchdogs like WIRED to name names of those who promote RW propaganda for their base on social media and the rest.

The Guardian is also keeping tabs on blue state resistance and lawsuits re ICE.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/jan/12/donald-trump-ice-minnesota-fed-jerome-powell-iran-cuba-venezuela-greenland-us-politics-live-news-updates

[valleyrogue]

4. All these "content creators" are heavily subsidized by the rich.

It is all disinformation, all in service to people who want to steal the rest of us blind.

Too bad so many people can't see through this obvious ploy.

The political right is all about reverse Robin Hood. It always has been, and it always will be. The con is trying to persuade enough of the masses to feel resentment of perceived "enemies" by playing on their prejudices.

NO sane person would sit there and say there was any debate whatsoever that Renee Nicole Good was cold-bloodedly murdered. The "content creators" are trying to stir up that resentment again while deliberately ignoring the fact they are supporting a murderer.

[ancianita]

5. Yes. But Congress is moving in a bipartisan way to cut off ITS funding, which Rachel is laying out tonight.

Because DHS is also funding them with our tax money, as WaPo has pointed out.

It's been a war of oligarchs since November 2024. We have evil oligarchs and good oligarchs. We know their names, and the corporations and foundations the evil ones hide behind.

Most Americans know that when "news" tries to justify murder, that platform or "media" is wrong.
Americans know that Murder by any govt official, for any reason, is a crime. The evidence is out there.

We are under nazi fascist occupation funded by the evil oligarchs.

[valleyrogue]

6. This has been going on for fifty or sixty years. It isn't new.

These fascists started with the "think tanks" like Heritage in the early 1970s promoting their bogus "position papers" as a means of polluting political discourse to favor the rich at the expense of everybody else. The Reagan administration letting the Fairness Doctrine expire was the absolute catalyst for the destruction of political discourse and the media, with Murdoch being permitted to buy American media and the right-wing internet being the ultimate result.

There are millions upon millions of people who have been brainwashed by these filthy rich people like Koch, like Murdoch, like the Bradleys, and the rest of them solely to distract them while picking their pockets.

[ancianita]

8. NOW we know this in hindsight. But we did not know this while it was happening. We didn't know until

Jane Mayer's investigative book Dark Money came out as a best seller in 2016, though she'd been chipping away at Money In Politics for years prior.

It's not that millions have been brainwashed as much as that oligarchs and corporations have been by stealth buying up power in government and corporations. It's not Americans' fault that they didn't know. This has been happening for at least three generations. It IS oligarchs' fault that they have plotted and planned to privatize a democratic nation -- it's the fault of the Koch oligarch network. Techbros are just lately trying to catch up.

[Initech]

7. And they can get the fuck out now.

They are not, nor will they ever be welcome.

[ancianita]

9. I hear you. Me, I'm in the "abolish ICE" political camp.

[Jack Valentino]

10. So I presume that GRINDR is crashing or about to do so, in the Twin Cities ??

(I strive to be non-homophobic, and have nothing against gay people--
except against those maggot gays in the closet who publicly support hateful anti-LGBTQ rhetoric
while denying who they are! They DESERVE to be mocked and quite possibly
EXPOSED to those whose politics they support, but who would hate them for what they actually are!)


Just my personal opinion.

[ancianita]

11. LOL