"Even before inception, the lawsuit has been dogged by a war on reality fueled by social media influencers, some of whom have direct lines to federal officials. At every turn, influencers and the imperatives of content creation have been an inextricable though not always visible part of the National Guard case. The influencers have broadcast their content directly to figures in the administration, they have shaped national policy around "domestic terrorism," and they have seeped into the legal record itself."
"A few weeks after President Donald Trump first began hinting he would send the National Guard into the midsize American metropolis, a Portland police sergeant wrote an irritated email about three counter-protesters at the ICE building in a southwest neighborhood of the city. The three, the police officer wrote, "continue to be a chronic source of police and medical calls at ICE.""
Judicial resolution of presidential authority to deploy troops to Portland depends on whether courts trust in-person observations or smartphone-recorded evidence. Social media influencers amplified and manufactured a competing reality while maintaining direct lines to federal officials. Influencers broadcast content to administration figures, influenced national policy language around "domestic terrorism," and entered the legal record. Persistent, performative counter-protest activity at federal sites created continuous content that generated repeated police and medical calls. Law enforcement described these performers as deliberately antagonistic and repeatedly trespassing on federal and transit property, complicating official responses and legal assessments.
Read at The Verge
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