How Minnesota shooting conspiracy theories hijacked social media

In the hours after the weekend shooting spree targeting Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, information was still just trickling out.

In the hours after the weekend shooting spree targeting Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, information was still just trickling out. Most Americans were beginning to learn about the assassination of one lawmaker and the attempted assassination of another Saturday morning.

With the information vacuum online, conspiracy theories were already beginning to flood in.

Before authorities had even announced a suspect and just an hour after news of the shooting broke, right-wing pundits and agitators began to spread ideas about who they thought did it and why. And when the suspect’s name was published, opportunists online baselessly asserted that he must have been a leftist activist whose alleged crimes were somehow tied to the issue of health care for illegal immigrants.

The claims weren’t confined to the political fringe. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, two Republican U.S. senators and other high-profile figures shared rumors about the shooting on X, the app that Musk owns, and some conspiracy posts on X tallied millions of views.

“There was a lot of speculation going on, simply because there’s a lack of information,” said Erik Nisbet, a professor of policy analysis and communication at Northwestern University.