Conspiracy theories spread wildly after the first assassination attempt on a US president in the social media age
CNN
Saturday’s shooting at a Donald Trump rally was the first assassination attempt of a US presidential candidate in the age of social media – and the former president had barely been hit before the internet was abuzz with all sorts of unsubstantiated explanations for what had, or had not, occurred.
Saturday’s shooting at a Donald Trump rally was the first assassination attempt of a US presidential candidate in the age of social media – and the former president had barely been hit before the internet was abuzz with all sorts of unsubstantiated explanations for what had, or had not, occurred. The moments of uncertainty created an information void that was quickly filled by speculation, misinformation and conspiracy theories. At the same time, the social media industry has broadly retreated from efforts to clamp down on misinformation. That retrenchment left the door wide open for false and misleading claims by both Trump supporters and opponents. The ease at which false rumors and conspiracy theories rapidly spread on social media threatens the public’s ability to sort truth from fiction. It sometimes influences their behavior and further divides an already fractured America. The deluge of disinformation surrounding the Trump shooting shows, once again, that this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. With less than four months until Election Day, the leading social media platforms appear resigned to let the status quo fester. Almost immediately after Trump was injured during a shooting at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally Saturday evening, a conspiracy theory emerged that the assassination attempt had been “staged” – that Trump and his campaign had set it up to orchestrate the iconic photos of a resolute Trump surviving an attempt on his life. The term “staged” began trending on X as soon as an hour after the shooting.
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