One month after Florida passed the law Classroom discussion or instruction is prohibited On sexual orientation and gender identity, which Republican governor Ron DeSantis signed into law in March, the number of tweets falsely linking gay and transgender individuals to pedophilia has skyrocketed.
Language that suggests gay and transgender people have “groomed” children for abuse jumped 406% on Twitter in April, according to a report. research by the Human Rights Campaign and the Center against Digital Hate.
The narrative was most widely disseminated by 10 far-right figures, including midterm candidates such as Congressman. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, according to the report. Their tweets about “grooming” misinformation were viewed about 48 million times, the report said.
In May, Mrs. Boebert tweeted: “A preschool in North Carolina is using flashcards of the LGBT flag with a picture of a pregnant man to teach colors to children. We’ve been going from Reading Rainbow to Randy Rainbow for a couple of decades, but dare not say the Left is grooming our kids! The tweet has been shared nearly 2,000 times and nearly 10,000 likes.
Ms Boebert and Ms Taylor Greene did not respond to requests for comment.
The report found that on Facebook and Instagram, 59 ads also promote the story that the LGBTQ+ community and its allies are “caring for” children. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, accepted up to $24,987 for ads, which were served to users more than 2.1 million times, according to the report.
Meta said it removed some of the ads mentioned in the report.
“The repeated push for ‘groomers’ stories has led to a broader anti-LGBT moral panic, affecting the law,” said David Thiel, technical director of Stanford Internet. federal and state legislation and potentially a significant midterm issue,” said David Thiel, technical director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, which studies extremism and misinformation online. .
