How an anonymous white nationalist Twitter account tricked TikTok and the media

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Have you seen the tweets from this guy who claims he heard Jewish people talking and digging below his apartment last fall?

Well he's completely full of sh*t, and the whole thingnis way more insidious than you might think.

Since the story of the tunnels under the jewish synagogue in Crown Heights broke on Monday, this man named “Richard” has been getting tons of attention for quote tweeting old posts of his where he claims he was hearing yiddish under the floor of his NYC apartment, and says that jews were digging beneath him.

His posts blew up and soon “Richard” was cited on news programs and in media all over the internet. Many articles characterized Richard as a "Crown Heights resident" But when you start looking into it there are red flags all over.

First of all, in this area of Crown Heights heights, almost all residential buildings are pre war and have basements. Also, almost all of the residents in that direct surrounding area are hasidic jews. There's nothing about Richard's account that indicates he's a hasidic jew, or that he has ever even lived in Crown Heights.

In fact, he never once posted about Crown Heights before the news of the tunnels broke. His alleged old tweets about jewish people living below him aren't live on his account, and he claims that's because he was forced to delete them for sounding conspiratorial.

But, he says that before deleting them, he took screenshots. Not only do the screenshots show signs of manipulation, but if he in fact DID take these screenshots from his own profile, then there shouldn't be a "follow" button.

So we know he didn't take the screenshots and we know the tweets probably aren't real. But if you look further into the motivations of this account, it's actually much more insidious. If you've spent too much time online, you'll recognize that "Richard" has all the hallmarks of a groyper account.

The Groyper movement is a loose network of extreme far-right white nationalist activists and internet trolls who gravitate around several key online influencers, most notably Nick Fuentes.

From the ISD, a non profit focused on extremism:

Groypers represent a new momentum within American white nationalism. They have a particular focus on capturing members of Generation Z, and in portraying themselves as American Christian nationalists, hope to attract disaffected conservatives by exploiting schisms and grievances within mainstream conservatism.

I'm not hating on TikTokers that initially shared his tweets thinking it was funny. I get it, I also laughed the first time I saw it. But I think incidents like this show why internet and media literacy is so important. We also need news organizations, especially those that write up viral trending content, to do a better job of vetting who they're amplifying without context.

In no way is this man a regular "crown heights resident"!

Already, thanks to these fake viral tunnel tweets, this totally anonymous far right, highly bigoted white nationalist account is getting a huge bump in engagement and followers.

This is how these people work their way into culture.

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