Disinformation researcher Amanda Rogers describes social media reaction to the shooting of Donald Trump as “a self-sustaining shit spiral” of polarized, unhinged, conspiracy-driven noise.
Rogers, a fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, has seen this happen before. But the scale is new and disturbing, she said. Discussions on social media and mainstream media have focused on the shooter’s motives and the impact on the election, she said. Bad actors want to turn moments like this into broader calls for violence. She said they would spread lies to achieve their goals.
“The fact that this is a perfect storm environment for disinformation on all sides of the political spectrum concerns me greatly,” Rogers said. “Because it’s an accelerationist’s wet dream … but we need to be in the media Make a noise and show that this is a destructive situation and people need to be cool with the speculation.
Accelerationists are those on the political fringes—either left or right—who want a civil war to burn the country to ashes so they can start over from the ashes. It is worth noting that the term “civil war” became popular after the Trump shooting.
Social media was immediately flooded with exaggerations, lies, conspiracy theories and ignorant nonsense about the shooting. Comments ranged from those on the right suggesting that Georgia Rep. Michael Collins, who argued that President Joe Biden incited violence, should be charged with a crime, to those on the left who believed the shooting was a hoax designed to shore up Trump’s decline. Survey the numbers.
Jonathan Corpus Ong, a disinformation researcher and communications professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said legitimate questions about whether the Secret Service missed something became about whether Biden was intentionally not telling the secret service Trump’s conspiracy to provide effective protection.
“I think it’s normal for people to speculate, kind of trying to figure out what’s going on,” he said. “I think it’s important for any journalist or reader to be critical of what they’re seeing in the media and what they’re reading, and to take their time… I think we don’t want to be gripped by fear because This can also create a state of distrust in others. It’s important to be wary of what we consume and learn when to step back from fear-mongering narratives.
Fact-checking deepfakes
Artificial intelligence further complicates responses to breaking news events.
Some photos from the event are destined to become iconic, like AP’s Evan Vucci’s photo of Trump with his fists raised and his ears bleeding as Secret Service agents strafed him from the area At the time, an American flag waved behind him.
But other information from questionable sources can quickly be fabricated. Ong said it’s valuable to compare images from multiple sources at events, or note which agencies are distributing them.
“You want to see videos, news reports and analysis, you want it to come from multiple sources and have it corroborated and verified by multiple experts to make sure it’s authentic in the age of deep fakes,” he said.
Ong said the emotional and historical nature of the moment helps manipulate and confirm existing biases, “which can trigger very intense feelings of fear or anxiety”. “I think that’s what we need to focus on. And be vigilant.
Speculation about the gun and the identity of the shooter had begun even before the FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the “person of interest” in the shooting. Almost immediately, posts began circulating on social media suggesting that the shooter used a BB gun, or that the weapon was a “ghost gun” made from 3D printed parts.
Police later said they found an AR-style rifle at the scene.
Neither claim could immediately be confirmed. Each theory serves a partisan narrative that either the shooting was a hoax or evidence of lax gun regulations.
Likewise, there has been unconfirmed noise in right-wing spaces about the identity of the shooter.
“These are common reactions we get from accelerationists on the far right… People think the shooter was Antifa, or trans, or Jewish,” Rogers said. “You’ve got the usual suspects. And then on more QAnon channels you see ‘This is the left trying to lure us into civil war.’
One of the things Rogers found most disturbing was a pattern of mass deletions of posts on the far-right Telegram channel she followed in the minutes after the shooting. She said they did it just in case it was theirs.
“The Telegram fans know people are watching and if there’s a connection, if there’s someone out there who actually has the facts, they’re not going to let this stuff stand.”
