The shooting incident at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania involving former President Donald Trump has sparked a wave of conspiracy theories on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Following the shooting, X CEO Elon Musk publicly expressed his support for the former President and disclosed his significant donation to a Trump Super PAC just a day before the rally.
According to The Verge, X has been promoting tags such as “false flag” and “staged” in its list of trending topics, fueling the spread of conspiracy theories. Numerous posts on the platform have claimed that Trump staged the assassination attempt or that the shooter, a registered Republican, was an undercover operative sent by President Joe Biden. It’s important to note that there is no evidence to support these claims. Shockingly, these posts have gained thousands of likes, including one suggesting that Trump’s sniper team purposely allowed the shooter to get closer.
In contrast, other major social media platforms responded more effectively to the incident. YouTube highlighted news clips and directed search results toward credible news reports and verified creators. Facebook predominantly displayed results from news outlets, having eliminated its trending topics section in 2018. Threads, on the other hand, occasionally featured conspiracy-related posts at the top of its trending topics but was not consistent in doing so.
Despite these developments, X has not provided any official comment on the matter. The platform’s email auto-reply simply states “Busy now, please check back later.” However, the platform’s official account did post a cryptic message stating “global town square,” which alludes to Musk’s original vision of creating a platform for free speech when he acquired Twitter in 2022.
The lack of moderation on X and the rampant spread of misinformation is not surprising given the recent news surrounding the Trump assassination attempt. Since Musk’s involvement with X, he has demonstrated a shift towards the right politically and has reinstated right-wing accounts like Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate. The platform’s moderation issues and the proliferation of conspiracy theories have led several high-paying advertisers to abandon the site. However, Musk’s dismissive response to these fleeing advertisers indicates that X’s misinformation problem is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.