July 14th 2024.
Republican members have been spreading fake news and disinformation about the shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. They have been using phrases like 'staged', 'deep state', and 'antifa' to describe the incident, which have become trending topics on the X platform this morning. This comes after the assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald Trump, with outlandish conspiracy theories becoming a regular occurrence on X since it was taken over by Elon Musk in October 2022.
Critics have pointed out that Musk's decision to strip content moderation on the platform has resulted in it becoming a breeding ground for disinformation, covering everything from the US presidential election to global crises like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Prominent figures such as Republican representatives Mike Collins and Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as Senator Tim Scott, have used X to push questionable accounts of the shooting. Collins has even gone as far as to claim that Joe Biden was behind the attack and has called for his arrest, while Taylor Greene has accused Democrats of wanting Trump gone for years and being willing to do anything to make it happen.
Even potential Trump running mate Senator Tim Scott has joined in, claiming that the shooting was aided and abetted by the radical left and the media. Nicole Shanahan, who is running against Trump opponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has also blamed the Democrats and the media for inciting the violence, despite previously criticizing Trump as a candidate. In response to posts claiming that Trump's security detail was slow to respond to the threat, Musk has even called for the resignation of the head of the Secret Service and the leader of the security detail, citing extreme incompetence or deliberate actions.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has faced criticism for failing to regulate disinformation on X, has demanded that the Secret Service's leadership resign over their handling of the shooting. Meanwhile, notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was ordered to pay out $1.5 billion for spreading disinformation about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, has encouraged Musk to seek shelter in his bunker amid what he claims is a 'live coup' orchestrated by the 'Deep State'. Jones, who runs the fake news website InfoWars, often peddles false theories to his followers, including the existence of a shadow government known as the Deep State.
Jones has also linked the shooting to the left-wing political movement Antifa, which has grown in influence and membership since Trump's election in 2016 and has been known to use violence in pursuit of their goals. In a video posted on X, Jones has claimed that he has been warning about attempts on Trump's life for months and that the same Deep State that is behind Biden's campaign is responsible for the shooting. He also predicts that they will try to kill both Biden and Trump's top supporters and blame it on a Trump supporter. However, there is no evidence to support these claims.
Republican Congressman Mike Collins has also made false claims about Biden ordering a hit on Trump, while Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been known to promote the QAnon conspiracy theory, has accused the Democratic Party of being behind the shooting. However, as more information about the incident comes to light, it has become clear that these claims hold no truth. The alleged shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was a registered Republican voter with no previous criminal history. Yet, some accounts have even falsely claimed that a member of Antifa, Mark Violets, was responsible for the attack and have shared images of an unrelated person, who has not been identified, as the shooter.
Despite these claims being debunked, some users have continued to spread false information about the shooting. Some have even suggested that the Butler, Pennsylvania police department, where the incident took place, was responsible for falsely identifying Violets as the shooter. This misinformation has been shared by accounts linked to Russian propaganda efforts on X. However, not all false information is coming from the right-wing. Some left-wing accounts have claimed that the shooting was a 'false flag' operation orchestrated by Trump's own supporters to gain more support for his campaign.
As the United States continues to grapple with the most serious attempt on a president's life since the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, experts are urging people to exercise caution and empathy when sharing information. With the influx of false or unverified information on social media, it's important to fact-check and not contribute to spreading disinformation. As Graham Brookie, the Atlantic Council's vice president for technology programs strategy, stated, "Please exercise empathy and caution as events unfold."
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
