Cool heads needed political fringe dwellers spread disinformation Trump shooting

Disinformation researcher Amanda Rogers describes social media responses to the shooting of Donald Trump as a self-sustaining spiral of misinformation from across the political spectrum, which she says creates an environment favorable to accelerationists who want civil war. Rogers, a fellow at the Century Foundation, says the scale of the problem is new and troubling. Jonathan Corpus Ong, a University of Massachusetts Amherst professor and disinformation researcher, urges readers to verify images and claims against multiple sources, noting that AI-generated fakes could be quickly produced. Early claims that the shooter used a BB gun or a 3D-printed ghost gun could not be substantiated, and police later said they recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene.