Over the weekend, amid nationwide protests of police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd, demonstrators in D.C. clashed with secret service and police outside the White House.

It was a dramatic scene that involved fires being set in the basement of historic St. John church—among widespread arson—and the exterior White House lights being turned off as President Donald Trump was moved into lockdown in the the White House Bunker. But by Monday morning the real events had been swallowed up in the heightened narrative of the supposed D.C. blackout, which claimed that all communication from the area of the protests had been shut down since around 1:00 AM.