After a mob of Trump supporters forced their way into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, the right wing has been working overtime to spread baseless conspiracy theories about who actually stormed Congress.
Many Republicans have settled on their usual scapegoat: antifa.
Their proof? Evidence reportedly from a facial recognition company called XRVision that was supplied to the conservative outlet, the Washington Times.
The conspiracy to blame antifa was quickly debunked, but that didn’t stop Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, from citing the article and the company’s name on the House floor last night in an attempt to shift the blame from Trump supporters to left-wing agitators.
However, in a statement to BuzzFeed News on Thursday, XRVision claims that the Washington Times story is a lie.
“Our attorney is in contact with the Washington Times and has instructed them to ‘Cease and Desist’ from any claims regarding sourcing of XRVision analytics, to retract the current claims, and publish an apology,” the facial recognition company said.
The Washington Times appears to have removed their article from their site on Thursday.
While they disputed the fact that the Washington Times received their “analytics,” they did acknowledge doing an analysis: “Shortly after the rioting started, XRVision performed an analysis on the video footage and identified several individuals. This information was shared with Federal LEA.” Though they state they did not identify any of the individuals as members of antifa.
It should be noted that XRVision is a shady entity and there is very little evidence that they produce functional facial recognition software.
XRVision’s CTO, Yaacov Apelbaum has a lengthy history online connecting him to right-wing conspiracy theories. Apelbaum runs a blog that has been shared by far right-wing outlets like The Gateway Pundit and by Q, of QAnon fame. The company’s LinkedIn page also shares these conspiracies, including a claim that they helped right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe of Project Veritas on a since-debunked hit piece on Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
The Washington Times reported in it’s now-deleted story that the information from the facial recognition company was provided to them by a “retired military official.” The conservative outlet did not publish the photographic evidence it claimed to have been supplied with.
This is developing story…
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