False and unverified claims proliferate online following Trump assassination attempt

Unverified claims about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump proliferated across social media in the 24 hours following the incident and continue to spread in the absence of more detailed factual information about the shooter. As news outlets and media commentators attempt to fill the gaps, ISD researchers identified a massive spread of false claims online across both mainstream and fringe platforms. Content referencing these narratives received over 100 million views on X (formerly known as Twitter) alone. In comparison, in the 24 hours following the Uvalde school shooting, posts referencing false flag and related conspiracies garnered 35.1 million impressions. Social media users voiced significant confusion as they tried to keep up with the wide variety of unverified information rapidly emerging and gaining traction, in a post indicative of a wider trend identified by ISD, stated, “I keep seeing different photos. It’s hard to verify what’s accurate and what’s not. We have gone from a Chinese National, to two shooters, an Italian social media influencer and now this. We need facts.” This Dispatch looks first at the specific narratives which proliferated across the platforms, promoting unverified and false claims targeting a range of individuals and groups. It then focuses on the ways in which these claims spread and mutated, moving fluidly between fringe and mainstream platforms.