Earlier this week, Syracuse University police investigated reports of a white supremacist manifesto appeared on an online forum and distributed to students via AirDrop on their phones at the library.
Chancellor Kent Syverud announced today “the rumor was probably a hoax.”
Multiple students at the university library reportedly received the manifesto at 1AM on Tuesday. A few reports said the students got the manifesto around 11:30PM.
Apple users have “AirDrop” on their devices, which “allows users to send photos or documents, among other items, to people around them who also have the feature turned on” if they have enabled Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
Law enforcement said someone posted the 74-page manifesto “to the online forum Greekrank the night before.”
From Syracuse.com:
“To date, law enforcement has not been able to locate a single individual who directly received an AirDrop. Not one,” Syverud said. “It was apparent that this rumor was probably a hoax, but that reality was not communicated clearly and rapidly enough to get ahead of escalating anxiety.”He said law enforcement had not identified anyone responsible for the spreading of the manifesto, connected to mosque shootings in New Zealand earlier this year.The close proximity needed for an AirDrop attempted transfer frightened some people, he said. He acknowledged the university was delayed and unprepared to respond to this cyberattack, which caused students to panic.
Syracuse has witnessed “a dozen instances of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti” on campus. The police think “that one to five people connected to the university are responsible for the vandalism.”
The police department announced authorities arrested a suspect for the graffiti:
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