Garrison Davis

7, which listed, quote, extremism on migration, race, and gender as common recurrent motivations and indica of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described anti-fascism.

among many other threads animating violent conduct.

Regardless of that, People Online interpreted both Klippenstein's report and the Heritage petition as meaning the FBI classified the entire class of trans people as domestic terrorists.

Social media both amplifies and distorts already misleading claims, turning news into a massive game of telephone, and the siloing of certain users and platforms makes countering this misinformation incredibly difficult.

The social media economy carries certain incentives.

For the producers of panic bait, that could be attention, status, and money.

But the consumers of panic also stand to gain something.

Catharsis, justification for their actions or lack thereof, as well as attention from fellow consumers.

These clickbait panic pieces explode around trans Twitter, which is still quite active, consisting of sex workers, gamers, TTT-style posters, and Zoomers who think Blue Sky is cringe and liberal.

Some of these panic stories, like the FDA registry, don't do very well on Blue Sky because that's where a lot of trans journalists who do actual journalism are.

But those journalists are not active on Twitter and TikTok, making it harder to counter misinformation on those platforms.

Countering trans panic clickbait also suffers from algorithmic suppression because it doesn't get people as riled up.

A wave of emotionally charged doom posting is boosted much farther than a calm and calculated rebuttal.

The biggest TikTok about ICE detaining people under suspicion of being trans has 1.2 million views.

The biggest TikTok fact-checking this claim has 290,000 views.

So much of social media politics is emotional manipulation based on anger, fear, or catharsis.

Posting about perceived danger is essentially viewed as a form of activism.

And if someone casts doubt on what's seen as an existential threat, that person becomes emotionally equated with the enemy.

Panic produces helplessness, but helplessness can actually be cathartic for the individual.

It's not helpful for people currently in the most danger.