Nick Shirley’s Somali daycare fraud video is bullsh*t. Here’s why it worked anyway.

Caroline Orr Buengo: Shirley‘s video has now been pretty thoroughly taken apart by numerous news organizations, and many of his core claims have been debunked or at least called into serious doubt. In one case, Shirley arrived when the facility was closed. In another instance, security footage from the daycare center shows children being dropped off on the same day Shirley was there claiming that no children were anywhere to be seen. In two other cases, Shirley showed up to non-operational child care facilities.

While there have been proven and prosecuted cases of fraud in publicly-funded programs in Minnesota, Shirley’s video doesn’t prove that it’s happening at the daycares he went to. So why do so many people seem to think they’re seeing fraud when they watch the footage? Because that’s what he told people they’re seeing. Then, he rolled out some tried and true tactics straight from the disinformation playbook and waited for the algorithm to do its thing…