It only takes seconds for misinformation to be posted and shared on social media.
The consequences of that were seen in real-time following the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally in 2024.
Denton Loudermill Jr. was falsely labeled as the shooter after a video of him being detained was shared online. In all the chaos of that day, which ended with a woman killed and more than 20 people hurt, many people shared footage of Loudermill.
The footage was not aired by Scripps News Kansas City; however, social media users spread his image out of context.
Loudermill was detained at the celebration but police let him go for reasons unrelated to the shooting.
Tweets from government officials, some of which were deleted, amplified the misinformation and received millions of views.
Loudermill ultimately sued Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett and Missouri Sens. Rick Brattin, Denny Hoskins and Nick Schroer.
"If they would've did their background checks and everything and their due diligence, I wouldn’t have had my face plastered everywhere," Loudermill said.
For Scripps News Literacy Week, he sat down with Scripps News Kansas City to talk about how important it is for people to fact-check before sharing information online.
"I think they should make sure they know what they are talking about before they push send on the computer," he said.
When it happened nearly a year ago, his character was attacked.
Loudermill was labeled as the shooter and called an "illegal alien."
He said people still stop him to ask about his involvement and whether he'd attend another rally.
"I’m still hearing things about what happened from last year and trying to get over what’s being said and wish things that’s on the computer weren’t on the computer," Loudermill said.
Even though people can see information online in seconds, Loudermill urged it's worth the extra time to make sure it's true.
"What people put on the computer could tear someone's life apart, but hopefully everything will be alright," he said.
Loudermill's attorneys are still trying to hold government officials accountable who shared misinformation on social media.
A federal judge dismissed all of those lawsuits, but Loudermill's attorneys refiled against the three Missouri lawmakers.
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National News Literacy Week is an annual event presented by the News Literacy Project in partnership with The E.W. Scripps Company and USA TODAY. The week raises awareness of news literacy as an essential life skill and provides educators and students with easy-to-adopt tools and tips for becoming news-literate. Throughout the week, the News Literacy Project provides educators with resources to use in the classroom and suggests ways for the public to support the movement to teach news literacy. This is the sixth annual event, which takes place the first full week of February. Visit this year’s website here.
This story was originally published by Alyssa Jackson at Scripps News Kansas City.
