An old 4chan meme gets new transphobic spin in wake of Nashville mass shooting (updated)
An old 4chan meme that is frequently boosted during mass shootings is getting a new, transphobic spin in the wake of a shooting in Nashville, Tennessee today.
The shooting occurred at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday, where a 28-year-old woman killed three adults and three children, according to police.
The meme is often used to trick and dupe media members and the public, accusing every mass shooting of being committed by comedian Sam Hyde. After the news from police that the mass shooter was a woman, a number of internet users began sharing a photo and identified the perpetrator as "Samantha Hyde."
They've even photoshopped longer hair and removed a beard from the image of Hyde that frequently circulates, this time trying to accuse the shooter of being trans.
"Nashville Police have positively identified the corpse of the suspected Nashville Covenant School shooter as 31 year old Samantha Hyde. Social media posts indicate Samantha was a trans woman who previously went by the name Samuel," a version of the post circulating reads.
According to NBC, police identified the shooter as Audrey Hale, who previously attended the school. Although no comment has been made on the shooter's gender expression outside of being first identified as a woman, a number of users are sharing former posts they claim are Hale, saying she transitioned.
The meme, unrelated to Hale, dates back to at least the San Bernandino shooting in 2015 which killed 14 people. A U.S. congressman even fell for the meme after the Sutherland Springs church massacre in 2017 and told CNN that the gunman was Sam Hyde.
The newest incantation of the meme seems to have started on Twitter and proliferated from there.
Other accounts picked up on the meme, tweeting out screengrabs of the photoshopped image with the false information that Samantha Hyde was the shooter.
"ANOTHER PSYCHO DEMOCRAT WOUND UP BY LEFTIST RHETORIC," wrote one account.
Both the meme and Hale being identified have whipped up anti-trans conservatives on the platform, who are sharing old images and screenshots of social media posts alleging to be of Hale, saying Hale used male pronouns
This post has been updated.
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