'Hacktivists' from around the world take to social media to stir #Baltimore unrest !

LIVE COVERAGE

Mayor lifts curfew, effective immediately

News Maryland 

CAPTIONDancing in the streets

Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun

A dancing Dilan Price, 7, is encouraged by the crowd at Pennsylvania and North avenues, an area hit hard by the riots. At least 1,000 people converged on City Hall on Saturday for a largely celebratory "victory rally," before the group walked to Pennsylvania and North avenues.  

CAPTIONRally at War Memorial Plaza

Jen Rynda/Baltimore Sun

A man holds a gloved hand in the air during Saturday's rally at War Memorial Plaza.

CAPTIONState troopers at City Hall

Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun

State Troopers stand in front of the entrance to the War Memorial building. Thousands participated in a march and rally which began in west Baltimore stopped at City Hall for speeches, and continued through the city in support of Freddie Gray who died on April 19th while in police custody.

CAPTIONNational Guard

Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun

National Guardsmen and law enforcement officials watch Saturday's rally at War Memorial Plaza.

CAPTIONRally at City Hall

Jen Rynda/Baltimore Sun

Deleicea Green, 15, of Baltimore, recites a poem during Saturday's rally at War Memorial Plaza. She is from Gwynn Oak neighborhood.

By Scott DanceThe Baltimore Suncontact the reporter

• Media Industry
 
• Larry Hogan
• Freddie Gray
 
• Baltimore Riots

The hashtag #BALTIMORELOOTCREW spread phony images of Baltimore unrest.

Baltimore firm traced tweets purporting to be from Baltimore riots to Russia, China and India.

After riots overtook West Baltimore on Monday, a hashtag began to appear on Twitter and other social media — #BALTIMORELOOTCREW — linking together posts that depicted pilfered prescription drugs and demolished store shelves.

On Freddie Gray coverage, don't blame the messenger

But that "crew" was not actually in Baltimore protesting the death of Freddie Gray, according to a local cybersecurity company. Many photos shared using that label, and others, were taken years ago, and often not even in the United States, employees at Federal Hill-based ZeroFox found.

Bad actors and so-called "hacktivists" descended on Baltimore — electronically, at least — this past week, flooding social media with automated accounts and inauthentic images, said James C. Foster, CEO of the social media risk management firm. Law enforcement and cybersecurity experts said such barrages increasingly target areas of unrest around the world, spurring violence and challenging efforts to contain it.

cComments

• If you're using twitter, you're not real bright anyway
  BOB73596
  AT 8:46 PM MAY 02, 2015

ADD A COMMENTSEE ALL COMMENTS

4

"There's a global reach now where they don't have to be here to further instigate it," Foster said.

The company's specialty is rooting out cyber criminals lurking on social media. And when West Baltimore erupted in rioting Monday, its employees felt compelled to apply their skills. ZeroFox worked into the night tracing tweets and Facebook accounts that shared photos of looting and violence.

Freddie Gray coverage

What they found was that
much of the activity was coming from
well outside of Baltimore, in some cases
from Russia, China, India and the
Middle East.

"I just killed a pig," wrote one tweet,
showing a bloodied police officer slumped
on the ground. Not only was the photo of
an officer in South America, but the
account sharing it was not in Baltimore.

Another tweet, which appeared to be
coming from the Baltimore police, asked,
"Why are we even tweeting?" and suggested
that the protesters couldn't read. It also
referred to them with a racial slur.

http://goo.gl/jmUtI3

Please RT - THANKS!