Many Elected Officerswith A top political aide For billionaire Reid Hoffman, recently, without evidence, former President Donald J. Trump suggested in July that he might have tried to assassinate him.
Mark Hamill, an actor and a lawyer For democratic causes, with over 5 million followers on X, criticized conservative policy proposals by Railing against ideas that are not part of the document.
and Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign last month misleadingly suggestedIn posts viewed millions of times, that Mr. Trump was confused about his whereabouts during the campaign stop. Her followers have taken to the posts to claim that Mr. Trump is suffering from cognitive decline.
For years, the debate about disinformation has focused on the lies circulating on the American right online. But in recent weeks, an influx of conspiracy theories and false narratives has also been circulating on the left.
Some disinformation researchers worry that a new wave of left-leaning conspiracy theories could further polarize political discourse ahead of the November election. More than one-third of President Biden’s supporters believed in an assassination attempt Must have been stagedAccording to a July poll by Morning Consult.
“I don’t think we’re going to be any less conspiratorial collectively,” he said Adam AndersAssociate Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville. “If anything, the closer we get to Election Day, the more it will increase.”
The researchers emphasized that the lies and exaggerations are not as virulent and toxic as those circulating in right-wing spaces online. Some studies show that Political Right Misrepresentations and false information are more likely to be shared. Researchers at Northeastern University found that Democrats in general were Better than the Republicans Distinguishing true from false news.
However, this is not the first time the left has spread misinformation. In 2004, for example, A A bunch of disappointed Democrats Claimed that President George W. on Senator John Kerry. Bush’s re-election was marred by electoral fraud. Experts issued quickly Denial of allegations.
Neither Mark Hamill nor the Harris campaign had a comment for this article. An aide to Mr. Hoffman apologized for questioning whether an assassination attempt had been made against Mr. Trump. He broke up Then immediately with the billionaire.
The shooting at the Pennsylvania rally became a lightning rod for conspiracy theories as soon as the shots were fired. Baseless rumors that Mr. Trump had shot himself are festered in enduring conspiracy theories, still shared by anonymous users and liberal influencers with thousands of social media followers.
Secret Service agents, some popular influencers on X and Threads have claimed, were on the plan. The blood was indeed from the bullet that hit Mr. Trump’s ear KetchupAnother theoretical. Never mind that there is no evidence behind these claims.
Mentions of the term “staged” on X increased in the days following the shooting, with over 300,000 mentions. As reported by NewsguardA company that monitors online misinformation. Many users claimed that the shooting was staged, while others criticized the idea. Some left-leaning users who shared conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt saw their follower numbers increase, sometimes significantly, NewsGuard found.
Joey Reid, host on MSNBC with over 340,000 followers on Threads, raised the questions about Mr. Trump’s injury from the shooting, suspected to have been interpreted by some of his followers, while his medical details were not released, as suggesting a cover-up. Majid M. Pedelon, who is known as the “Brooklyn Dead Defiant” on X and has more than 1.3 million followers, extended Such suspicions by presenting their own doubts about Mr. Trump’s injury. (FBI The latter said Mr. Trump was shot.)
MSNBC did not respond to requests for comment. In an email response, Mr. Padel defended his questions about the nature and treatment of Mr. Trump’s injury and the actions of the Secret Service that day.
The assassination attempt sparked a similar wave Conspiracy theories From America’s right – echoed by leading Republicans – in which Democrats ordered the attack. As the presidential campaign continued, Mrs. Harris was targeted by the barrage Racist and racist lies From conservatives, who also have Invented lies About Governor Tim Walz, his running mate from Minnesota. Mr. Trump personally a barrier Inappropriate Claims Just in the last month.
Research shows that Mr. Trump plays an important role in spreading lies on the right, acting as a megaphone that encourages influencers and politicians to spread lies in lock step with each other. In contrast, left-wing misinformation tends to spread more loosely and systematically across a diverse collection of users and organizations, the researchers found.
“There’s only one difference between what you hear episodically from the left and the systemic production of pretty vile and dangerous stuff that we’ve seen coming out of that right-wing ecosystem over the years,” said Steven Livingston of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University. Founder Director.
Researchers believe that the whiplash of the current campaign season helped create the ideal conditions for voters of all political persuasions to feel distrustful and uncomfortable. Conspiracy theories tend to take hold in moments of distress and turmoil, research shows.
“When you’re presented with information, you don’t really know what to do, you fill in the narrative blanks,” said Whitney Phillips, assistant professor of media ethics and digital platforms at the University of Oregon.
Social media has become Main source of news For many Americans, that allows voters to enter their own ideological silos, giving virility — and exaggeration — more weight than subtlety. Fact checkers And their peers, meanwhile, are Struggle to make a pit When in misinformation Fight for more support.
These terms have also paved the way for outlandish claims to garner national attention. A Rude, untruthful joke About Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance, it spread quickly after being added to the ticket with nearly 400,000 mentions and 4.6 million interactions from July 15 to July 31, according to online and social media data analyzed by Hootsuite. The joke also became fodder for late-night television hosts and the Harris campaign, which mentioned it on social media and during rallies.
Articles debunking left-wing misinformation have faced online pushback from critics and journalism watchdogs, who have claimed that traditional fact-checking processes are ill-suited to countering left-wing lies. The Associated Press was mocked online for trying Eliminate the joke By writing a static fact check that was soon deleted. The news agency said the fact-check did not go through its “standard editing process”.
“Since most of what Democrats say is provably — or at least arguably — true, fact-checkers have come down to splitting hairs at best and Worst,” wrote Dan Frumkin, founder of Press watchA nonprofit website covering political journalism.
Snopes, a fact-checking website, is used to seeing pushback over its frequent debunking of right-wing misinformation. But since the war between Israel and Gaza began — and through this year’s presidential election — the website has also faced scrutiny after running fact-checked articles about left-wing lies, according to Doreen Marchioni, the site’s executive and managing editor.
“We get hit from all sides whenever what we report doesn’t fit certain left-wing or right-wing talking points,” she said.
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