There was a time when official government statements were treated as a reliable account of what happened. Aside from the occasional conspiracy theory, government accounts, even on social media platforms, were treated as trustworthy. Like any other statement from a politician, they could be warped to a degree to serve an agenda, but the facts of a certain event could generally be relied upon. 

In 2026, whatever trust we had in government transparency has completely dissipated. That trust has been tested, not by hearsay, not by conspiracy theorists, not by fringe outlets, but in broad daylight on American streets. 

In the first month of 2026 alone, at least eight people have died at the hands or in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Among those deaths, two gained the most recognition in the media — Renée Good and Alex Pretti. 

What separates them from the other six murders? For one, they’re white. It cannot be overlooked that the stories that have most incensed Americans on a wide scale are stories of violence towards white citizens. Moreover, from both instances emerged civilian-captured videos widely circulated on social media. In Good’s case, video analysis shows multiple shots fired into her SUV in under a second, contradicting initial government descriptions of the encounter, which claimed she “weaponized her vehicle.” On Jan. 7, the day of the shooting, President Trump said, “She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.”

Less than 20 days later, on Jan. 24, Pretti was also fatally shot in Minneapolis. Just later that day, the first video captured from across the street circulated on Instagram and X. It showed a struggle, a woman nearby recording and then, suddenly, shots fired. In the subsequent days, more point of views were posted and spread, but not before the Department of Homeland Security posted a photo on X, formerly Twitter, of a gun found on Pretti’s person, alleging that he had “2 magazines and no ID,” manufacturing the narrative that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage.” 

In both cases, the videos of the murders, often from multiple angles, presented a wildly different story than the self-defense narratives created within minutes by the government. Official narratives of both shootings shifted only after hours or days of public scrutiny and comparison with footage shared online. Social media platforms have flaws, are rife with misinformation and are largely responsible for planting seeds of mistrust between party lines in exchange for profit. 

In earlier days of social media, the verified account or official, governmental affiliation conferred a sense of trustworthiness onto content posted to social media, which we’ve been taught to scrutinize. Now, sources that once attempted to stabilize an uncertain relationship between social media and truth capitalize on that very instability. Even more frightening, with the proliferation of AI videos, our very sense of reality is manipulated and taken advantage of. 

However, in an unsteady information environment, we must learn to rely upon viral videos and crowdsourced timelines to even approach an understanding of the truth, while official sources with access to evidence, investigators and our tax dollars emit delayed, incomplete or contradictory statements. 

The opacity doesn’t end with shootings in front of our very eyes. We do not have anything close to a full picture, much less a video, of what is happening inside ICE detention centers, where political prisoners are being held out of public view. Reports and rumors of deaths, unanswered questions about conditions and zero mandate for public accountability have fueled fears that the real human cost of immigration enforcement remains hidden from the public eye. 

In the age of endless information, it is astounding how easy it is to have that information weaponized against us, and how little accountability follows. Citizens and activists with phones and social media should not be the only check on federal power.