Fact Check: Is Antifa Behind the Devastating Wildfires?

In September 2020, rumors started spreading across social media that the wildfires in Oregon had been set by Antifa.

The rumor has since been debunked by police departments and fire departments, stating that the accusation is making their efforts to contain the emergency situation more difficult.

Was it done by Antifa?

The wildfires in Oregon, Washington, and California in early September 2020 have killed almost a dozen people and forced half a million people to evacuate. It has burned homes and scorched millions of acres.

Amid the catastrophe, emergency responders were forced to take some time to counter misinformation galloping across numerous social media platforms. The rumors falsely claimed that political extremists, Antifa, were behind the "arson campaign" in three states.

One site, The Gateway Pundit, had a headline "Antifa Radical Arrested for Arson in Washington State- Was Caught on Highway Live-Streaming on Facebook Before Arrest."

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On September 9, 2020, a 36-year-old Puyallup man was arrested on suspicion of setting a fire in the median on SR 167.

But Washington State Patrol Trooper Ryan Burke stated in an interview with Snopes that police do not have evidence that the incident was linked to Antifa.

Misinformation on social media appeared to attempt to link the wildfires to racial justice protests in various cities.

In Portland, those protests had become protracted and sometimes violent, with clashes between Antifa, which is a term referring to loosely coordinated groups of anti-fascist activists, and right-wing counter-protesters.

On September 9, 2020, police in Molalla issued a warning specifically about looters exploiting chaos and vacant homes as residents fled the flames. However, Molalla police updated the post to note that it was not referencing Antifa.

A copypasta hoax immediately spread online that six Antifa arson suspects had been arrested in Douglas County, Oregon. The rumor was shared on Twitter by U.S Senate candidate Paul Romero, and thousands of people retweeted it.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Department, on September 10, 2020, confirmed in a Facebook post that the rumor about Antifa was false and pleaded with social media users to stop spreading fake news.

Meanwhile, Sen. Romero's team refused to answer questions about why the senator posted the tweet that was proven as a hoax. Sen. Romero is being accused of spreading rumors that clogged up Douglas County's emergency dispatch lines.

Rumors that went viral

Other social media posts claimed that police in Medford, Oregon, had arrested another group of Antifa arsonists, which is a rumor that was swatted down by Medford Police on September 9, 2020.

The police noted that some had gone so far as to create a fake graphic with the logo of the department and included the right-wing group Proud Boys in the hoax.

Another viral meme stated that an alleged witness saw someone throw Molotov cocktails out of the windows of a black Mini Cooper heading toward Yachats, a city in Lincoln County, Oregon. Lincoln County Sheriff Curtis Landers stated that as far as the police are aware that it was a hoax.

A spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Forestry, Joy Krawczyk, told The New York Times that while many of the fires in the state are under investigation, there has not been any evidence that they were set as the result of a politically-influenced arson campaign.