The news this week has been largely dominated by the story of a mentally disabled teen being kidnapped and tortured on video by four other young people. The four suspects are black, and the victim was, white. The attack was an apparent hate crime.

What makes this story particularly disturbing is the fact that the suspects filmed themselves torturing the victim for around 30 minutes. On video, they attacked him with a knife, kicked him, hit him, and made racial slurs about white people and hostile remarks about Donald Trump. It had been circulating on social media that the attack was linked to Black Lives Matter, though that appears to be false.

This attack represents a growing level of hatred and racial tension in society. This is not the first such attack that has happened in the last couple of months. Back in November, a video surfaced of an older white man being attacked by a group of young people who were shouting negative remarks about Donald Trump. At the end of that video they stole the man’s car. I think it is clear that this level of hatred that is directed at white people, and Donald Trump supporters in particular, is a direct result of all of the misinformation that was circulated during the election cycle. The media demonized Trump and his supporters through misinformation and propaganda to such an extent that people like the four teens in this story felt justified in abducting and torturing a mentally disabled teen and filming it. Not only that, but at one point in the video, the suspect who was filming actually complained that the video wasn’t getting enough attention on social media.

Luckily, the victim survived and the suspects are in custody.