In some cases, they have created collages that place the women’s photos alongside images from an Instagram page believed to have belonged to the shooter. Social media users and trolls on 4chan, Twitter and Facebook are using Sam’s photos and images of at least two other transgender women to spread the baseless theory that the shooter was transgender. She said she’s feeling annoyed more than anything: “I’m more worried about the families of the victims of the attack,” she told NBC News. Sam, 20, started posting photos of herself and her art online to help build up her confidence.
While some users said they did not believe the photo was of the shooter, other users posted new threads soon afterward, using pictures with fewer details of Sam’s face from her profile. A photo of Sam was posted to 4chan on Tuesday afternoon, in a post that began with “here’s the shooter’s reddit” before linking to her Reddit account and posting a transphobic slur. “This isn’t the first time I was harassed, but it is the first time I’ve been accused of murder,” she said.The false claims started shortly after news of the shooting first broke.
