Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
Key Points:
- CrowdStrike outage triggered global disruptions and resurfaced debunked Trump conspiracy theories.
- Misinformation and criticism spread on social media platforms regarding the outage.
In a recent article by The Washington Post, the CrowdStrike outage brought back memories of the debunked Trump conspiracy theory involving the cybersecurity company’s role in probing the 2015 DNC hack and Trump’s first impeachment. When a defect in an update from CrowdStrike led to a worldwide outage, some supporters of Trump quickly took to social media to revive the narrative that the company was involved in a Democratic cover-up in Ukraine, despite the theory having been discredited in the past. CrowdStrike, founded in 2011, is a prominent cybersecurity company that provides software and services to various organizations. The company’s investigation into the DNC hack in 2016 linked the attack to Russia, a conclusion that was challenged by Trump who asserted that Ukraine was responsible. The controversy surrounding CrowdStrike’s role in the DNC hack resurfaced during the recent outage, with social media platforms buzzing with conspiracy theories and criticism towards the company.
Despite CrowdStrike’s efforts to clarify its investigation findings and refute the conspiracy theories, some individuals continued to propagate misinformation and express distrust towards the company. The incident underscores the persistence of false narratives in the age of social media and the challenges faced by companies like CrowdStrike in managing reputational risks in the digital landscape.
