claim: Antifa activists announced in August 2017 that they would protest the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 2018.
origin: A meme claiming that â€œantifa,â€ or anti-fascist protesters, planned to shut down the 2018 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally due to the prevalence of U.S. and Confederate flags was widely circulated on social media in August 2017: However, none of the posts we viewed linked to a source showing that any antifa group had made such an announcement. It seems instead that the meme evolved from ideas generated by â€œalt-rightâ€ Trump fans and White nationalists.Â On 13 August 2017, a member of the pro-Trump subreddit /the_donald/ posted an image of a tweet by conservativeÂ political commentator Tomi Lahren that purportedly showed a large â€œTrumpâ€ sign at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. â€œWhy doesnâ€™t Antifa show up at Sturgis?â€ the poster asked. (Lahrenâ€™s tweet had come a day after antifa members protested a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.) Â Soon those on the far right began tweeting messages daringÂ the anti-fascist group to attend next yearâ€™s rally and reveling in the idea of violence ensuing: Some took the joke a step further and posted a meme of a â€œSturgis Survival Kitâ€ for potential antifa protesters: Unsatisfied with simply daring antifa to protest Sturgis, others claimed that the group had actually made an announcement to protest next yearâ€™s event. We searched the social media pages of various antifa groups and found no mention of a plan to protest Sturgis in 2018. We reached out to Itâ€™s Going Down, an antifa news web site and digital community center, and were told that they were unaware of any plans to protest the annual motorcycle event: < Wait what? Donâ€™t even know what rally you are talking about. Total troll.Â Looked it up, a motorcycle event? Another example of Alt-Right trolls trying to push violence, thanks for bringing this to our attention.Â > The idea that antifa activists were planning to protest the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was started by internet trolls amused by the idea of violence breaking out. Although itâ€™s technically possible that this protest could get â€œmemed into existenceâ€ before the 2018 motorcycle rally, no antifa groups had announced such a plan in August 2017.Â