A Trans Pilot Was Falsely Blamed for a Plane Crash. Now She’s Fighting the Right-Wing Disinfo Machine

Wallace, who Ellis has filed suit against, also regularly posts content about trans people, including making false claims on X in 2024 that “100% of mass school shootings this year have been carried out by LGBTQ activists.” This post was viewed 1.8 million times. A month later, in the aftermath of the Lakewood church shooting in​​ Texas, Wallace posted an image of the shooter claiming she’s transgender even as fact-checkers and news outlets clarified the shooter was a woman. Wallace seems to have “an overarching homophonic, anti-trans” theme to his social media, claimed Ellis’ lawyer Phelan, adding that it is obvious that both Ellis and the community at large were the target.

Another internet trend that regularly shows up during a mass-scale tragedy is the “Sam Hyde” meme, through which people pair images of far-right comedian Sam Hyde in a wig—often referring to him as “Samantha Hyde”—and portray him as the perpetrator of shootings. “Sam Hyde or Samatha Hyde is a larger internet and social media meme that emerges every time there’s a school shooting,” said Abels. “I believe it is intended to be a joke, but people fall for it.”

Within the right-wing media ecosystem, fringe rumors can become mainstream quickly. “It’s a very large apparatus they have built via cable news personalities, politicians, online media figures,” said Gogarty. “And that apparatus is really prime to spread fear-mongering and narratives, particularly when it involves vulnerable communities.” This becomes a bigger problem as algorithms amplify harmful content while platforms such as Facebook and X scrap fact-checking. Earlier this year, Facebook also loosened its rules around hate speech and abuse.

It’s not just the Uvalde shooting. There are several other cases where a random hoax circulating on 4Chan accusing somebody trans of being a shooter is picked up by a larger right-wing media personality or a politician. “It’s a really clear example of how that apparatus works and how quickly and efficiently they are able to spread misinformation across that ecosystem to really whatever narrative helps them in that moment,” added Gogarty.

Ellis said that while it’s unclear who started the rumor first, it was Wallace who connected her likeness to the incident, and due to his large following he was able to amplify the reach of the rumor. “Free speech is great, but if you cause damage to somebody or it causes harm or threats, I think you have to have accountability,” said Ellis. “I am not looking to regulate speech, but there’s some clear cases that shouldn’t be allowed.”

Prior to this incident, Ellis barely had an online presence and didn’t even have an X account. But “now I am everywhere,” she said. “I didn’t want to be public, but now that I am, I am trying to take advantage of it, because it’s important to stand up for the everyday trans person getting attacked.” She has been giving interviews and becoming an advocate for trans issues. “There’s such a need for a moderate, pragmatic trans voice in the debate right now,” she said. “I think that’s the direction I am going to go: As long as people keep listening to me, I’ll keep saying things.”

She believes that the right has weaponized the “edge cases” into painting a scary picture of how all trans people are, and because most people may not personally know a trans person, they believe the narrative. “There’s not enough everyday trans people showing up visibly as an example, because they want to integrate and assimilate versus stand out and make a fuss,” she said. “There’s a middle ground somewhere, but right now the political stance is either extreme right or left, and neither is good for any of us.”