Conspiracy theories about an assassination attempt on Donald Trump were viewed millions of times on X, researchers said on Tuesday, highlighting the potential for extreme falsehoods to go viral on the Elon Musk-owned platform.
The social media site, formerly called Twitter, was flooded with baseless claims in the immediate aftermath of a shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday that left one spectator dead and a bloodied Trump with an injury to his ear.
These included unfounded claims that the assassination attempt was “planned” or an “insider conspiracy”, while fingers were pointed at imaginary perpetrators such as Jews and the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
These conspiracy theories were viewed more than 215 million times on X, the watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reported after analyzing a sample of 100 popular posts.
The CCDH said most of the posts did not contain a “community note,” a crowd-sourced moderation tool that Musk has promoted as a way for users to add context to tweets.
Unfounded stories about the incident were viewed more than 100 million times on X in the first 24 hours alone, according to the nonprofit research group Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
AFP fact-checkers reported that internet hoaxers had misidentified several people as the attacker – including Italian sports journalist Marco Violi, anti-Trump protester Maxwell Yerick and comedian Sam Hyde.
Federal investigators identified the attacker, who was killed at the scene, as Pennsylvania resident Thomas Matthew Crooks.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, many social media users expressed confusion as they struggled to find accurate information in a sea of false or misleading posts that quickly became popular.
This trend reflects the ability of falsehoods to transform into viral political discourse on tech platforms, including X, which now offer fewer protections as they reduce content moderation.
Researchers say some influence-seeking accounts on the platform have a financial motive for posting sensationalist falsehoods, as X’s advertising revenue-sharing program encourages extreme content designed to boost engagement.
“In the market for misinformation – which is effectively what many social media platforms have become – extremist content is your currency,” said Imran Ahmed, chief executive and founder of CCDH.
“Algorithms take the most bizarre content and amplify it exponentially until the entire digital world is filled with conspiracy, misinformation, and hate.”
The researchers warned about the potential spread of misinformation during the November elections, which will take place in a deeply polarized political environment in the United States.
“Even at this early stage of the US election cycle, we can see warning signs that chaos and misinformation will increase on social media in the coming weeks and months,” Ahmed said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
