X-Firing conspiracy theories gain momentum after Musk endorses Trump

Conspiracy theories about the shooting at Trump’s rally began to surface on X shortly after the news broke this afternoon, with the platform encouraging users to use topics like “#falseflag” and “staged.” X owner Elon Musk has strongly advocated for “free speech” on the social media platform — which can include misinformation like the one above.

On X, none of the trending topics about the shooting are filled with particularly strong or coherent conspiracies; when clicked, you’ll find largely short posts from X users saying the shooting looks fake or that it was a stunt. (There’s no evidence for either.) But by placing the topics in X’s trending topic area, the conspiracies reach more people.

Other major social media platforms seemed to handle the situation better immediately after the shooting. YouTube showed news clips and directed search results primarily toward news reports and verified creators. Facebook’s search results primarily pointed to news outlets; the platform Removed its trending topics section in 2018 Due to frequent complaints about its curation, the thread occasionally displayed conspiracy-related posts at the top of its trending topics for the event, but they did not appear consistently.

X did not respond to a request for comment. An email sent to the press team received an auto-reply, which said: “Busy right now, please check back later.”

It seems the company is embracing its role as a hub of discussion, though — rightly or not. While conspiracy topics continue to trend, even Axe’s official account Posted A little note this evening that said, “Global Town Square.”