Under the bipartisan Informing Consumers about Smart Devices Act, manufacturers of internet-connected devices would be required to disclose whether the appliances have microphones or cameras. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore

For the second time in as many weeks, social media users have lambasted U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for spreading misinformation online.

In the most recent case, the Texas Republican was accused of sharing a misleading tweet about the Biden administration cutting door-shaped sections in a section of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Over the weekend, user @EndWokeness shared a video on X — the social platform formerly known as Twitter — and falsely claimed that it showed the Biden administration cutting holes in the border wall erected by Donald Trump.

“The Biden administration welded open the Trump border wall in Tucson, AZ,” the user added. “It’s not a crisis. It’s by design.”

Cruz was quick to help peddle the conspiracy theory, retweeting the video with “#BidenBorderCrisis.”

“This…is…nuts,” the senator added.

However, social media users and fact-checkers working for X quickly pointed out that both @EndWokeness and Cruz had no idea what they were yammering about.

“These are floodgates that are required to be opened during Arizona’s monsoon season,” X fact-checkers explained under Cruz’s tweet, citing an article from the Washington Post. “If left closed, the force of flash floods caused by seasonal rain and the debris they carry would topple the border wall. This practice was also done during the Trump administration.”

Despite the rational explanation backed up with evidence, some right-wing accounts commenting on Cruz’s tweet refused to believe it showed anything of the sort. Others, including user @JoJoFromJerz, recognized it as good time to called out Cruz for his itchy Twitter finger.

“How many more layers deep does your stupid go exactly?” @JoJoFromJerz asked. “Cuz I thought we hit the ground floor a prank shark meme ago. Apparently, I was wrong.”

That, of course, is a reference to Cruz last week retweeting a Photoshopped image of a shark allegedly swimming down Los Angeles’ I-405 as Tropical Storm Hilary walloped California. The clearly fake photo has circulated on the internet for years and often reappears during hurricane season, according to X fact-checkers.

Despite being discredited, both the border wall claim and the shark image remain up on Cruz’s X profile.

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter| Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Related Stories

This article appears in Aug 23 – Sep 5, 2023.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...