Originally published in The New York Times.

Social Media Platforms Deluged by Unsubstantiated Claims About Trump Rally

Disinformation experts immediately urged caution, warning people not to jump to conclusions.

By Sheera Frankel and Tiffany Hsu

Unsubstantiated claims about what took place at Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pa., immediately flooded social media after the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump.

Without providing proof, the social media posts blamed shadowy figures on the left for targeting Mr. Trump, and built on ideas circulated by Mr. Trump that the “deep state,” or a cabal within the government, was seeking to stop him from returning to office. The unverified claims surfaced on platforms including Gab, Truth Social and Parler, which are favored by the far-right, as well as on X, Telegram, Facebook and Instagram.

Disinformation experts immediately urged caution, warning people not to jump to conclusions.

“We are about to see a lot of disinformation spreading about who is behind the shooting, who executed it, and the events that led up to this moment,” Roberta Braga, the founder of the think tank Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas, wrote on X. “Watch for emotional language.”

Law enforcement officials will require time to investigate what happened at the rally. Video from the event appears to show Mr. Trump dropping to the stage and bleeding from his ear before being escorted away by Secret Service agents.

Some social media accounts said that a gunman with ties to the “deep state” had opened fire and shot Mr. Trump. Without citing evidence, the accounts also blamed government agencies such as the F.B.I. and the Centers for Disease Control for targeting Mr. Trump.

Representative Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, quickly accused President Biden of ordering an apparent shooting at Mr. Trump’s rally, but provided no proof. “Joe Biden sent the orders,” he wrote on X. Mr. Collins didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Others claimed on social media that any shooter was a member of the far-left Antifa group, or was acting on behalf of transgender individuals. None of the posts provided evidence for their theories.