Women’s hockey is finally getting the attention it deserves. The PWHL expanded with two new teams this year, merchandise is flying off the shelves, and I can watch game highlights on the tvs at the gym. Just a few years ago, it was hard to find any news items about women’s hockey; yet, today in the age of generative artificial intelligence (AI), even women’s hockey cannot escape the propaganda of regressive politics.

Earlier this month, the Facebook post below by “She Shoots Hockey” came across my feed. My immediate reaction was “Whoa! Did Boston cut Keller?” There was no link and the caption didn’t provide any player names. So I went to Google and tried to see if there was any breaking news about the Fleet. Nothing. Then I went to the team’s Instagram. Nothing. Damn the AI images and fake news!

I sent the post to a friend and said “You know the PW has made it when there is fake news about it.” The only problem is that these posts are becoming a regular occurrence and the fake news goes beyond gossip about the rink and rosters.

She Shoots Hockey has 13,000 followers and US Hockey Fan has 6,500 followers on Facebook. Probably almost all of these followers are bots. She Shoots Hockey is overwhelmingly devoted to “news” about Hilary Knight but also the Fleet/Torrent in general. These are some of the things that have been posted on She Shoots Hockey in recent days:

• BREAKING NEWS: Seattle Torrent head coach Steve O’Rourke has officially confirmed shocking information regarding Hilary Knight’s health following the game against the Ottawa Charge. Seattle fans are devastated and heartbroken; many still cannot believe what has just happened. (Dec 17, 2025)
• “Seattle Torrent only won because of luck — there was nothing truly intimidating about them on the ice!” — Ottawa Charge head coach Carla MacLeod fired off a controversial remark immediately after the 1–4 loss to Seattle Torrent. (Dec 18, 2025)
• “Thank you for always believing in me” — Hilary Knight choked up as she revealed the deeply, emotional truth behind Seattle Torrent’s commanding victory (Dec 19, 2025)

US Hockey Fan is the Kendall Coyne Schofield and Minnesota Frost equivalent of She Shoots Hockey. It posted about a special bonus that Ken Klee gave Coyne Schofield after their 5-2 win over the Frost on December 20th (the win was real news), that Nicole Hensley admitted that there was a time when she was ready to walk away from hockey, and that Kelly Pannek was frustrated after being cut from the starting lineup. Both pages have posted that a Qatari billionaire has expressed interest in acquiring the Frost and the Torrent. Both pages also seem to have a beef with Whoopi Goldberg who has apparently made disparaging comments about women’s hockey:

Both pages post fake stories about the player’s doing good deeds:

The caption for this post reads: “BREAKING NEWS: After the game against the Boston Fleet, hockey star Kendall Coyne Schofield left the entire sports world stunned after quietly wiping out 812,000 USD in school meal debt for students across 103 schools.

“A victory greater than any trophy.”

Kendall Coyne Schofield’s compassionate act was described as lifting an enormous burden from the shoulders of thousands of students, allowing them to return to school without fear, shame, or anxiety over missing a meal. Kendall called the gesture “a victory that goes beyond any cup,” emphasizing that no child should ever begin a school day with an empty stomach or be judged because of their family’s circumstances.

The story quickly spread across social media, carrying a powerful message of compassion, dignity, and hope — once again revealing the deeply human heart that exists behind the intensity and relentless pressure of elite sport, where Kendall Coyne Schofield is not only an exceptional athlete, but also a symbol of kindness and community responsibility.”

And, here is Hilary Knight with a “disabled boy”:

If you enjoyed these AI-generated images of Knight, then you’re really going to love the next ones:

Admittedly, these images are so fake that it’s funny. Fake news about the player’s personal lives, team drama, or fake lawsuits are annoying and perhaps unethical. But there is something more insidious happening on these pages when they make up stories about how players are refusing to participate in PWHL Pride nights:

I haven’t gone back through all of the posts but the news about Coyne Schofield not participating in Pride Nights was also posted on December 7, 2025. A friend asked me if I had heard about this and I wondered if what she had seen came from one of these kinds of sites. I showed her a post and she said “yes, that is what I saw.” These anti-Pride Night posts have the most engagement on them of any posts — hundreds or thousands of likes when most other posts get maybe 6 likes. Judging from the spelling/grammar of some of the comments and the fact that Nicole Hensley supposedly commented “Yes yes yes, someone finally says it like it is” on the December 7th post about Coyne Schofield, these are bots as well. But either: 1.) Real people are commenting and like players pulling out of Pride Night games or 2.) there are folks on social media trying to create acceptance for these regressive perspectives in women’s hockey.

Follow me for a bit of a detour as I try to offer an explanation for what I suspect is happening with these posts.

NPR’s Code Switch podcast recently published an episode about digital blackface in the age of AI. Blackface refers to the racist practice of non-Black folks painting their face with dark paint to adorn blackness as a costume. Blackface goes back to minstrel shows in the 1800’s where white actors imitated enslaved Black folks for entertainment. The digital version of blackface is when non-Black folks use images/GIFS/memes of Black folks via social media to express extreme emotions (e.g., anger, excitement, sassiness). The “ain’t nobody got time for that” GIF/meme is an example of digital blackface. Its viral usage by non-Black folks is problematic because it reproduces the idea that blackness is meant for entertainment and it performs an erasure of actual Black people and their circumstances. It is also a performance that non-Black folks can use while not facing any of the social consequences that Black people do in real life, such as face discrimination for speech patterns, attire, or acting “ghetto.” “Ain’t nobody got time for that” is a quote from a news interview where the woman, Kimberly Wilkins, had to escape a life-threatening apartment fire but the meme ends up being used out of context and for laughs. We don’t usually laugh at people who just lost their home in an apartment fire. In the Code Switch episode, the host brings up how AI generated rage bait videos were circulated during the recent U.S. government shutdown of Black women complaining about losing their SNAP benefits in ways that reproduced stereotypically racist perceptions about “welfare queens”. In the clip they play, you can hear a woman saying (in stereotypical African American Vernacular English/Blaccent) “it is the tax payers job to pay for my kids to eat and for my kids to be taken care of.” The discussion that followed argued that the purpose of these fake rage bait productions is to incite anger/resentment but the ultimate goal is to enforce stereotypes that lay the groundwork for dehumanization on a larger scale. It opens the door for hatred. This is what I think is happening with the fake WoHo posts about Pride Night resistance.

The way that the alt-right operates online has been well-documented. They meet people where they are. The alt-right operates in video game chats and on women’s wellness social media. The alt-right is behind the all-meat diet content that you may see on your social media feeds. The game plan is to post enough things that are factually correct (or seem close enough) to gain engagement and then occasionally slip in conspiracy theories or racist/transphobic/misogynistic/homophobic/anti-semitic posts or comments and see who laughs or see who just sticks around. You don’t have to like it or believe it the first time but the assumption is that if you agree with enough of their other premises (whatever those might be) it’s possible to draw you further down the rabbit hole. This is exactly how the anti-vaxx movement made its way into the White House. It started as questions about health regulations and what might be in our food or vaccines. These are reasonable questions to have. But slowly what seemed outlandish starts to become common sense and you see other people who also believe these ideas. You find a like-minded community.

The Trump administration has very quickly changed the landscape of the United States during this second term. It has all been unfolding according to their plan as outlined in the 900-something page document, Project 2025. GLAAD highlights the end goal with respect to LGTBQ+ rights:

The plan includes firing federal employees that oppose or insufficiently support right-wing policies, ending access to abortion and contraception, and eliminating protections for LGBTQ people. The document even calls for erasing LGBTQ-inclusive language throughout federal agencies such as “the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights.”

We have already seen this unfold with thedenial of gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and Arlington, Texas just became the first U.S. city to rescind its anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people. So in the grand scheme of things, some fake news in WoHo may not seem like much and these few posts that are interspersed with the other hockey news about Hilary Knight’s two fake children or the imaginary fights with Whoopi Goldberg may seem random or otherwise innocuous because they are patently false. But while human rights are being rolled back daily, and what was legal and just yesterday is no longer legal or just today, I don’t think that these posts are nothing. I would argue they are part of a much larger strategy to lay the groundwork for the dehumanization of LGBTQ+ people and their/our rights. Women’s sports has become a safe space for progressive rights in the last decade. That didn’t happen overnight. It took decades of fighting for the world that we want to live in and in the last 12 months that vision has moved further and further away. Let these fake news posts be a reminder that we cannot be complacent and that the fight continues because the far right has nothing to lose and everything to gain these days.