Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday, conspiracy theories, deceptive statements, and unsubstantiated claims went viral online.
Speculation regarding the identity of the gunman and whether or not the shooting was planned were among the wild ideas that swiftly amassed millions of views on social media in the wake of the attack.
Conspiracy theorists, political operators, and social media opportunists exploited the lack of information about what actually happened to spread unverified or unsupported claims on tech platforms that have mostly stopped monitoring posts about significant political breaking news events.
Within minutes of the events on X, conspiracy theories and misleading information about them began to circulate.
The word “staged,” which was used in over 228,000 postings on the platform, swiftly rose to the second-highest trending topic after “Trump” after footage of the incident went viral and quickly racked up millions of views. Many posts on X suggesting the apparent shooting was staged received millions of views in less than an hour. There is no proof to back up any allegations that the incident was staged—Trump sustained obvious injuries, one spectator died and another was hurt.
Similar posts, but with a far smaller readership, may be found on Meta’s Instagram and Threads.
Additionally, “antifa” shot to prominence on X after social media posts appeared to misidentify the shooter who carried out Saturday’s massacre.
One “well-known Antifa activist,” Mark Violets, was blamed for the posts. As of Saturday night, law officials had not published any information about the shooter’s history or publicly recognized him.
Anonymous social media accounts frequently fill in the information void left by posts that incorrectly identify the perpetrators after shootings that make national headlines, whether for comedic purposes, to trick news media, or to manipulate the algorithm for interaction and followers.
Users alleged that the Butler Police Department was the source of the bogus identification in posts on X, Telegram, and specialized internet forums. A picture of a man wearing sunglasses and a black hat was included in the posts, with the assertion that it was a clip from a video that the man had uploaded to YouTube prior to the attack, in which he stated that “justice was coming.” All of that was untrue.
On X, the posts were shared by legitimate accounts. The assertion was shared with 1.3 million followers on Wall Street Silver, a well-known verified account that is notorious for disseminating false information. It was then removed without any explanation. The claim was also disseminated by Russian propaganda accounts on Telegram, MAGA and Proud Boy channels.
Actually, the person in the posts is Italian YouTuber Marco Violi, who vlogs about soccer. The joke that appeared to be the start of the hoax was initially uploaded on X by the account @Moussolinho, and it incorrectly identified Violi as the gunman. A picture of Violi from the account of another user—who frequently shared films of Violi—was included in his post.
Because there were so many videos of Violi on that user’s page, people began to flood his account with claims that he had attempted to kill Trump. Once he started being referred to as the shooter in public, that person made his account private. The user, who wished to remain anonymous, stated over direct message, “This is absurd.” I had some video and a picture of Marco on my account, so people assumed I was Mark Violets. But that was all misinformation.