By admin 
WASHINGTON, Dec 24 – The assassination of a US health care executive has sparked a flood of online disinformation and calls for violence against other executives, suggesting a moderation failure on social media that analysts fear could spread translate into real damage.
The messages, which were allowed to spread unchecked across technology platforms, came in the wake of the Dec. 4 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York and exposed a Wild West internet landscape largely devoid of guardrails.
“No matter how much disagreement there is about what, if any, content should be moderated, at the top of most people’s lists would be ‘explicit threats of violence,’” said Jonathan Nagler, co-director of the New York Center for Social Media University. and politics, told AFP.
“So seeing social media posts that explicitly encourage violence against anyone, including health insurance company CEOs, suggests that content moderation has failed.”
In further illustration of this failure, disinformation security company Cyabra identified hundreds of accounts on Elon Musk’s Facebook, owned by X and Meta, spreading a host of conspiracy theories related to the assassination.
They include the baseless claim that Thompson’s wife was involved in the murder because the couple was experiencing relationship problems.
Other reports baselessly claimed that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was behind the assassination.
Many of these stories were amplified by prominent X influencers, such as conservative commentator Matt Wallace, and some of them were viewed hundreds of millions of times, Cyabra said.
‘Uncontrolled hatred’
In another lie identified by the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard, a video floating online showed Thompson admitting to working with Pelosi.
But it was an old video from 2012 and the man was another Brian Thompson, who had to clarify on X that he was not the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
Confirming the old axiom that a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth attracts, his
Thompson’s killing has unleashed pent-up anger toward the nation’s health insurers, which patients and advocacy groups say are failing to provide affordable care.
Many comments targeting the medical system quickly degenerated into targeted threats against high-profile CEOs.
Hashtags such as “CEO Assassin” gained traction and several posts targeting health insurers brazenly asked, “Who’s next after Brian Thompson?”
A message sent to insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield read: “Let your CEO know… you’re next!!!”
Similar messages targeted Jim Rechtin, CEO of Humana, and Andrew Witty of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of Thompson’s firm.
“The danger here is clear: unchecked hate and disinformation online have the potential to spill over into violence in the real world,” Cyabra CEO Dan Brahmy told AFP.
‘Alarming power’
The companies did not respond to AFP’s question about how they were dealing with the threats reverberating online.
Due to the increased risk, US companies are increasing security staff in offices and homes of senior executives, many of whom have been asked to remove their digital footprints, US media reported.
Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing Thompson, has been widely reported online.
Brahmy said this showed the “alarming power of unmoderated social media” to amplify violent narratives.
Moderating social media content has become a political lightning rod in the United States, with many conservatives calling it “censorship” under the guise of combating misinformation.
Platforms like
“As platforms grapple with moderation challenges, it is imperative that companies, governments and users remain vigilant against the disproportionate influence of bad actors, who exploit social tensions to manipulate public perception and conversations,” Brahmy said. —AFP