As officials expect an influx of migrants at the southern U.S. border, some social media users were quick to tie two recent mass killings in Texas to immigration and gangs.
Eighteen people were killed and another 17 were wounded between two incidents one day apart in the Texas towns of Allen and Brownsville.
But a May 8 Facebook post that pegged the perpetrators as being illegally in the U.S. lacked factual foundation.
"Both murderers in Texas were not only illegals, but gang members," the post said, "most likely tied to MS13."
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The first mass killing occurred May 6 at an outlet mall in Allen, about 25 miles north of Dallas. The gunman, identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, opened fire around 3:30 p.m., killing eight people and injuring seven more before he was fatally shot by police.
The second took place May 7 in the border town of Brownsville, where a 34-year-old man, identified as George Alvarez, drove into a crowd near a migrant shelter, killing eight people and wounding 10 others. Alvarez is in custody and faces manslaughter charges along with 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
There is no evidence that either men were in the United States illegally, or that they were members of MS-13, an international criminal gang that originated among Salvadorans in Los...
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