The May 24 shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is the worst school shooting since the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, more than a decade ago. However, misinformation about the horrific episode was quickly spread by internet users, activists, and far-right politicians about the identity of the shooter, Salvador Ramos.

Photos and messages circulated on social media sites like Twitter and forums like 4chan, which claim that Ramos, 18, is a trans woman and an illegal immigrant. “Both claims are explicitly false but find their place neatly in the disinformation and misinformation cycle that has sadly become par for the course after mass shootings. False narratives about immigration, gender identity, and sexual identity help draw attention away from the root causes of these tragedies and instead aim people’s anger at marginalized communities in the United States”, according to Latino Rebels publication.

Regardless of the continued effort to spread true information and mass reporting of disinformation, multiple accounts on Twitter continued spreading the disinformation to the point that “Salvador Ramos trans” was one of the top search results when looking up the shooter’s name. Among the high-profile people who’ve spread the disinformation, both claiming that the shooter was trans and an undocumented immigrant, are far-right Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Spanish-language news aggregator Alerta News 24.

One 4chan user, who doubted Ramos was a trans person, said “Let’s just call every one of these school shooters trannies. No glory for degenerate losers”, according to Vice News.

Alongside claims that the shooter was trans, many also spread the lie that he was an undocumented immigrant, likely because he was Hispanic and Uvalde’s proximity to the U.S.-Mexico Border, despite confirmation that he was an American citizen.

Some posts falsely claimed that the Uvalde shooter was from El Salvador. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D-TX) later confirmed that Ramos was born in North Dakota. Nonetheless, many Twitter users continue to spread disinformation as well, regardless of corrections.

“4chan and its sister site 8chan have been linked to multiple mass shootings in the past, many experts citing those white supremacists and neo-Nazis become radicalized on the message boards. The Buffalo shooter posted his manifesto to 8chan right before killing 10 people and injuring three at a Tops supermarket. The purposeful spread of transphobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric coincides with a rise in violent attacks against transgender people in the United States. It also coincides with a rise in violent tactics used by U.S. Border Patrol against immigrants attempting to cross the border”.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently ordered the Department of Family and Protective Services to launch a child abuse investigation into parents who gave their children gender-affirming care.