An armed man tried to force his way into an FBI office in Cincinnati.
The incident was called a "False flag" by far right corners of the internet.
Many forums have called for violence against the FBI, according to an Extremist expert.
Immediately after an armed man tried to force his way into an FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio, and exchanged gunfire with police, the internet gave the incident a false flag.
The Donald made baseless claims that the standoff was a hoax to make his supporters look bad.
Users on the forums have called for "civil war" and violence against FBI agents despite the fact that conspiracy theories are common on the internet.
An armed man wearing body armor tried to break into an FBI facility in Cincinnati.
The man fled after failing to get in and ended up in a standoff with cops after trading shots. Police and federal agents were not hurt.
After the FBI executed a search warrant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, threats of violence against FBI officers gained traction online.
The FBI director called the threats against the agency "deplorable and dangerous" in a press conference on Wednesday.
During Thursday's incident in Cincinnati, those same online forums and sites were filled with users questioning the validity of the incident and baselessly claiming it was staged.
The false flags have begun after news broke of the incident, wrote a far-right influencer with over 600,000 followers on Trump's social media app.
One Truth Social user wrote about the FBI and Corporate Media being predictable. It is because of Trump and his supporters that a false flag is being conducted in Cincinnati.
Top comments on The Donald called the incident a hoax.
The thread's top commenters said that they staged an attack on themselves to play the victim.
As the suspects' stand-off with police continued, a host on Alex Jones' show floated the idea of a set-up.
He said on-air that the FBI are not the victims of the shooting.
As of early Thursday afternoon, police were still engaged in a standoff with the suspect, who they had not yet identified.
False flag conspiracy theories are often used by far-right internet users and people on social media.
There are false flag claims about everything from the Capitol riot to the Buffalo mass shooting. Media fact-checkers and public officials need to debunk these accusations if they gain enough traction.
Since false flag accusations have been happening for years, it wasn't surprising to see them after the FBI incident in Ohio.
Far-right internet users have advocated for violence against the FBI for a long time.
Ryan said that these people have called for civil war, violent terrorism, harassment of the judge who issued the warrant, and doxxing FBI agents. The minute violence against the FBI happens, they're like, "Oh, not it, obviously it was a false flag, they're trying to make us look bad!"
According to Ryan, the purpose of false flag accusations is to make it hard for people to figure out what's happening.
There's a real-time component to baseless conspiracy theories like false flag accusations, where far-right communities build and reinforce the theories immediately, according to a senior research manager.
Holt said that people who believe in theories like this bond together.
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