How Disinformation on X Fueled the Minnesota Shooting Narrative
▼ Summary
– YouTube deleted videos from the Minneapolis church shooter shortly after her identity was revealed, but they were quickly downloaded and reshared on X.
– X became flooded with unverified claims about the shooter’s motivations, including anti-Christian hate, transgender issues, and white supremacy, which gained millions of views.
– X’s disinformation team was previously reduced, and the platform’s algorithm and incentives now favor engagement-driven, conspiratorial content over verified facts.
– The shooter’s video featured guns adorned with over 120 symbols referencing hateful ideologies, memes, and online communities, which extremism researchers warned required careful analysis.
– Conservative influencers, politicians, and X users pushed false narratives blaming the shooter’s gender identity and other factors, despite evidence and refutations from X’s own AI chatbot.
In the immediate aftermath of the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, social media platform X became a hotbed for rapidly spreading disinformation, with unverified claims and speculative narratives quickly gaining traction. While YouTube acted to remove several videos shared by the perpetrator that morning, those clips were swiftly downloaded and re-uploaded in full on X, where they circulated widely.
Within hours, the platform was inundated with sensational and unsubstantiated theories about the shooter’s motives. High-profile users, including Elon Musk, FBI officials, and political activists, amplified baseless accusations ranging from anti-Christian bias and transgender extremism to white supremacy. Many of these posts accumulated millions of views, according to X’s public metrics.
Unlike other platforms that also hosted misinformation, X under Musk’s leadership has developed a reputation for accelerating the spread of dangerous falsehoods during breaking news. The company’s disinformation team was significantly reduced years ago, and many influential users now report that the platform’s incentives favor engagement-driven, out-of-context content over factual reporting.
Laura Edelson, an assistant professor specializing in online disinformation at Northeastern University, notes that “X’s feed algorithm is fully designed to maximize engagement, even negative engagement.” She adds that in such an environment, “conspiratorial, extreme content tends to perform very well,” especially given the platform’s relaxed content moderation policies.
An 11-minute video from the shooter, widely shared across X moments after her identity became known, displayed an array of firearms adorned with over 120 symbols, phrases, and coded language linked to hateful ideologies, past mass shooters, and nihilistic online subcultures. Despite warnings from extremism researchers urging caution and thorough analysis of the extensive digital evidence, many on X rushed to judgment.
That same day, screenshots from the video were leveraged by a diverse range of accounts, including elected officials, law enforcement representatives, activists, and conspiracy theorists, to advance specific narratives about the causes of the shooting.
One of the most pervasive false claims centered on the shooter’s gender identity. Right-wing figures such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Benny Johnson, and Elon Musk helped spread the idea that her transgender identity was a motivating factor, despite X’s own AI chatbot, Grok, refuting the notion that transgender individuals commit mass shootings at disproportionate rates.
Other users, like commentator Nick Sortor, insisted the attack was driven by hatred of Christianity, pointing to anti-religious messages written on the shooter’s weapons. FBI Director Kash Patel appeared to lend credibility to these assertions by announcing an investigation into the shooting as a “hate crime targeting Catholics.” Meanwhile, conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alleged the perpetrator was “radicalized by leftism and Islam,” and some pointed to anti-Israel phrases on the guns as evidence of antisemitic motives.
(Source: Wired)
