Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, May 5. I’m Justin Ray.
As The Times has reported, California intends to become a haven for those seeking reproductive health care in America if the U.S. Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion overturning Roe vs. Wade becomes the law of the land. This may make the state a target, as it has been in the past for its progressive laws on immigration, the environment and other policy areas.
One way that people can attack the state is through misinformation and disinformation. A misinterpretation of a California bill has already gone viral online.
The misinformation appears to have originated from multiple questionable websites that published stories claiming that California bill AB 2223 legalizes infanticide. One site said it would “legalize the murder of children up to nine months gestation and in the week(s) after birth.”
The false claims have been posted and reshared thousands of times on Twitter with language such as, “California introduces bill to legalize infanticide before and after birth”; “Killing babies up to 28 days old!”; and “An abortion bill that will essentially legalize a form of infanticide.” (When asked for a response to the tweets, Twitter said the posts were “not found to be in violation of the Twitter Rules,” adding that “our misinformation policies apply to COVID-19, civic integrity and synthetic and manipulated media.”)
What does the bill actually do?
The bill, which you can...
A popular social media conspiracy theory about a recent cluster of hantavirus cases claims that the word “hanta” means “scam,” “fraud,” or “nonsense” in “Hebrew slang.” That’s more or less where t...