As the names of the victims and their families emerged after the massacre, their anguish was met with a new round of unexpected hell. Extremists, believing that the government would either murder innocent people OR stage an elaborate crisis play, began making claims that the Sandy Hook School shooting was a hoax designed to repeal the Second Amendment.
Within hours, posts on blogs and social media began suggesting that there were no victims at Sandy Hook and that the grief stricken parents were actually “crisis actors.” Conspiracy theorists began combing through the social media of victim’s families looking for “proof,” stealing photos and personal information that they then disseminated on their own sites, and harassing those who spoke out in support of gun control in the wake of the shooting.
As the youngest victim, cherubic six-year-old Noah Pozner‘s picture became the media “go-to” photo when reporting on Sandy Hook. This coupled with his mother Veronique’s eloquent and impassioned call for stricter gun control measures, and the family’s Jewish faith quickly pegged the Pozners as the main target for conspiracy theorists, as well as anti-government, white supremacist, and antisemitic groups.
By the end of January, a mere six-weeks after Noah was murdered, the attacks from some of the largest extremist platforms, which included radio and televised broadcast with 10 million hits a month, were so relentless that Lenny Pozner, Noah’s father wrote to the platforms, begging for compassion and relief. By this time, the conspiracy theorists had so whipped their fans into a frenzy against the Pozners, that thousands of followers were themselves posting Noah’s picture, often defaced, spreading “crisis actor” allegations, and sharing the personal identification details of the family on their own social media pages.
