Magazine ties chemical hoax to Russian 'trolls'

A hoax claiming a toxic fume release occurred at a St. Mary Parish chemical plant Sept. 11, 2014, appears to have been part of an elaborate “trolling” scheme, complete with clones of Louisiana TV and newspaper websites, hundreds of fake Twitter posts and fake YouTube videos, perpetrated by a group in St. Petersburg, Russia, according an article in The New York Times Magazine.
Around 8:30 a.m. Sept. 11, 2014, St. Mary Parish residents received texts warning of a toxic fume release. St. Mary Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Duval Arthur had provided The Daily Review with the text that stated: “Toxic fume hazard Warning in this area until 1:30 PM Take Shelter. Check Local Media and columbiachemical.com.” The phone number the text came from was 646-586-5960, Arthur said. Arthur was told by other people who received the text that it came from a phone number consisting of seven zeros, he said.
Columbian Chemicals in Centerville had reported no release of any kind, Arthur said shortly after the text messages were sent.
Columbian Chemicals makes carbon black, a petroleum product used in rubber and plastics, according to the New York Times article.
When the test message was sent out, Arthur said officials were investigating the incident but believed the warning of a toxic fume hazard to be a hoax.
On Wednesday, Arthur said parish officials never discovered who sent the hoax text messages.
The New York Times article said, “Dozens of journalists, media outlets and politicians, from Louisiana to New York City, found their Twitter accounts inundated with messages about the disaster.”
The hoax turned out to be “a highly coordinated disinformation campaign, involving dozens of fake accounts that posted hundreds of tweets for hours, targeting a list of figures precisely chosen to generate maximum attention,” the article said.
Trollers doctored screenshots from CNN and created “fully functional clones of the websites of Louisiana TV stations and newspapers,” the article said. A YouTube video of a man watching TV “had been tailor-made for the project,” according to The New York Times.
The article said that The Internet Research Agency, a “shadowy organization,” which spreads falsehoods across the internet and is based in St. Petersburg, Russia, was believed to be behind the elaborate hoax.
Arthur said about 90 percent of the “hoax calls” he receives are from Russia.
Arthur got a phone call from a reporter right after the hoax occurred, and then later the reporter called Arthur back asking for the names of the people who got the messages, he said. Arthur wouldn’t give the names of the people who got the messages but gave them the reporter’s phone number to contact if they wanted to, he said.
In reference to the hoax, Arthur said, “They could be doing stuff like that ... in an effort to try to put your guard down.” If somebody gets two or three messages like that and then ignores subsequent messages because they’re assumed to be more hoaxes, that could be a big ‘mistake,’” Arthur said.
“We take every complaint we get seriously,” Arthur said. “We don’t not respond to anything.”
The day of the hoax, Arthur said officials believe the text was possibly a hoax because of 9/11, Arthur said.
If the culprit was found, he planned to bring charges against them for terrorizing, Arthur said.