A picture of Jeffrey Epstein from July 8, 2019, when federal prosecutors charged the financier with sex trafficking of minors. Epstein died later that year by suicide while in federal custody. Stephanie Keith/Getty Images This week's unsealing of court records relating to [Jeffrey Epstein's alleged associates](https://www.npr.org/2024/01/05/1222823216/epstein-john-doe-files-released-unsealed) has brought about a new wave of conspiracy theories about the late, disgraced financier. Epstein, who died by suicide while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, is [a perennial favorite in conspiracy-minded communities](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/08/1121525125/heres-why-conspiracy-theories-about-jeffrey-epstein-keep-flourishing) because of his ties to the wealthy and powerful and the speculation surrounding his death. Some false accusations [tried to tie other high-profile figures who weren't named in the documents to Epstein](https://www.rumorguard.org/post/epstein-document-release-spurs-spate-of-fakes-and-falsehoods?utm_campaign=rumorguard-alert&utm_medium=email&ms=rumorguard&utm_source=rg-alert-jan5-24&emci=faefa2f2-f5ab-ee11-bea1-0022482237da&emdi=cc9a4c1c-03ac-ee11-bea1-0022482237da&ceid=12506356). Many other discussions centered around the idea that whatever the public is shown about Epstein isn't the real story. Conspiracist logic often functions as an inversion of the cliche that 'seeing is believing,' according to Jenny Rice, a professor of rhetoric at the University of Kentucky, who has researched conspiracy theorist communities devoted to the 9/11 attacks. "You can only believe the things that you can't see," she explained. "The things that we are shown are deliberately produced and delivered to us and therefore are not trustworthy." Examples from this week include those pushing the idea that a [school shooting that took place in Iowa](https://www.iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/2024-01-04/what-to-know-about-the-perry-iowa-high-school-shooting) on Thursday was actually a staged event meant to distract the public from the Epstein list. Elsewhere the list itself is cast as a distraction from new alleged evidence of election fraud that proves Donald Trump is the rightful president. Contradictions like these are common in the world of conspiracist beliefs, especially in the era of social media, where decoding and interpreting news events is often participatory and communal. "It's almost like a form of world-building collaboratively," said Rice. "I'm a researcher myself, so I totally understand the thrill of researching and discovering. And though I do it through academic means, a lot of conspiracy theorists find the same kind of joy in discovering." The contradictory theories that swirl around Epstein when he reappears in news headlines just go to show how malleable and useful his story has become in conspiracy-minded communities. "When we did surveys on the Epstein conspiracy theories, what's interesting about them is that they kind of cross the ideological spectrum. A lot of conspiracy theories tend to be located firmly on one side or another, and this one really, it's because he was so prolific in his social context and the pictures of him with Donald Trump and pictures of him with Bill Clinton," said Eric Oliver, a political science professor at the University of Chicago. Oliver has been researching conspiracy theories since 2006 and says the share of the population that believes in conspiracy theories of one kind or another has stayed fairly consistent. They're also a constant throughout history, he says. "I think that's the big difference of what's happening now, is that and then I think you also have readily available media sources...that regularly pose as news sources," says Oliver. He and other researchers sometimes use the phrase "conspiracy entrepreneurs" to describe people or organizations that gain money and influence by spreading conspiracist beliefs. It's a business model with some built-in advantages. "You know, conspiracy theories don't get to a point where they say, okay, mystery solved. Our work here is done. Because to a certain extent, you know, part of what draws in people to conspiracy theory is that it is unending," said Rice. Unfortunately, she added, while conspiracy narratives can appear to focus on legitimate social issues, they also tend to detract from constructive political engagement. The potential for conspiracy theories to influence politics is increasingly concerning for Oliver, who points to two recent examples. "January 6th and mobilization of people storming the Capitol around January 6th. Would that have happened without conspiracy theories around this?" he said. "The second one would be, of course, [resistance to vaccines around COVID](https://www.npr.org/2022/05/19/1098543849/pro-trump-counties-continue-to-suffer-far-higher-covid-death-tolls) and sort of denial about the basic scientific evidence around COVID."

AT&T issued a statement Thursday night to explain that the telecom’s widespread network outage [earlier in the day](https://gizmodo.com/all-major-cell-carriers-report-outages-nationwide-1851277854) wasn’t caused by a cyberattack. Countless conspiracy theories [emerged online](https://gizmodo.com/conspiracy-theories-run-wild-amid-mass-u-s-cell-outage-1851278496) Thursday morning as people naturally wondered why they’d lost service. “Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” AT&T said in a statement published to its website. “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve,” the statement concluded without going into more detail. Social media was swamped with wild ideas on Thursday about what may have been behind the outage, including an attack by a geopolitical adversary of the U.S. [like China or Russia](https://gizmodo.com/conspiracy-theories-run-wild-amid-mass-u-s-cell-outage-1851278496). Alex Jones, America’s most well-known professional conspiracy theorist, insisted during his show on Thursday that there was an 80% chance it was China, and a smaller chance it was the “globalists themselves,” who might be carrying out a “false flag” attack. The Netflix movie _Leave the World Behind_, became a popular point of reference on social media sites like X, given the fact that it depicts an attack by an unknown entity that wipes out all communications. Conspiracy theorists and regular social media users alike shared images from the movie, which stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali, worried that something nefarious might be happening. The outage was initially thought to include many more carriers than AT&T, but reports to Down Detector for other phone providers were likely a result of users simply being connected to AT&T’s network despite paying another carrier for service. AT&T’s network appeared to be [fully restored](https://gizmodo.com/all-major-cell-carriers-report-outages-nationwide-1851277854) by mid-afternoon Eastern time. [_This article originally appeared on Gizmodo_](https://gizmodo.com/att-conspiracy-false-flag-china-cyberattack-netflix-1851280602).

Far-right Republican congresswoman, Trump ally and potential vice-presidential pick Marjorie Taylor Greene told a British interviewer to “[Fuck off](https://twitter.com/TheNewsAgents/status/1765278643150872812?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1765278643150872812%7Ctwgr%5E840d70e707ce821a60fbc90e79c7c1a771c23c26%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fmarjorie-taylor-greene-emily-maitlis_n_65e83885e4b0170871fc29e6)”, when asked about her frequent repetition of conspiracy theories. Emily Maitlis, formerly a senior journalist at the BBC and now a presenter of the News Agents podcast, spoke to Greene at Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday celebration [at Mar-a-Lago](https://twitter.com/TheNewsAgents/status/1765129709950812377) in Florida, as the former president closed in on the Republican nomination. “Could you tell me why so many people that support Donald Trump love conspiracy theories, including yourself?” Maitlis asked. Greene said: “Well, let me tell you, you’re a conspiracy theorist and the left and the media spreads more conspiracy theories. We like the truth. We like supporting our constitution, our freedoms and America first.” Raising a famous instance of the congresswoman’s eager conspiracy theorising, concerning what she thought was to blame for starting forest fires, Maitlis said: “What about [Jewish space lasers](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/28/marjorie-taylor-greene-kevin-mccarthy-republicans-house-committee)? Tell us about Jewish space lasers.” “No,” Greene said. “Why don’t you go talk about Jewish space lasers and really, why don’t you fuck off? How about that?” “Thank you very much,” Maitlis said, as Greene walked away. Greene might have been advised to expect tricky questions. A highly experienced interviewer, in 2019 Maitlis [memorably](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/dec/19/emily-maitlis-prince-andrew-was-unleashed-he-wanted-to-tell-me-everything) confronted Prince Andrew about his links with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a royal disaster [so complete](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/apr/27/set-up-for-failure-the-wild-story-behind-the-car-crash-interview-which-destroyed-prince-andrew) it has now been dramatised, Gillian Anderson [starring](https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/scoop-film-prince-andrew-newsnight-interview) as Maitlis. Greene’s brief exchange with Maitlis started more civilly than it ended. Maitlis asked what message Greene thought Republican voters were sending to Nikki Haley, the last challenger to Trump for the presidential nomination who suffered a near-Super Tuesday wipeout. “Well, we’ve been encouraging her to drop out and support President Trump,” Greene said. “And I think tonight is the clear message that that President Trump is the clear frontrunner. He’s the winner in our Republican primary and it’s time for Nikki Haley to drop out and support him.” [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/06/marjorie-taylor-greene-emily-maitlis-interview#EmailSignup-skip-link-11) Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion Asked if she was on Trump’s list of potential vice-presidential picks – as she previously [told the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/23/georgia-marjorie-taylor-greene-donald-trump-vice-president) she was – Greene said: “That’s the question everyone asked and no, I don’t think Nikki Haley should be on the list. But of course, President Trump will choose who he wants for VP. “He’s got a long list. I serve President Trump in any way he’d ask me, but I can assure you it won’t be Nikki Haley.” Maitlis then asked about Trump, Greene and conspiracy theories. Things went downhill from there.

 The Kate Middleton saga has been a boon for tabloids and cat nip for internet conspiracy theorists. Since Middleton [had abdominal surgery](https://www.wsj.com/world/uk/kate-middleton-is-alive-but-the-royal-conspiracy-theories-wont-die-5d2db801) in January and then failed to show up at a number of annual and/or scheduled events, the internet has been flooded with theories about what might have happened to her. Then came [the doctored photos](https://gizmodo.com/kate-middleton-sorry-manipulated-family-photo-viral-1851324402), making things even worse. Despite myriad claims from the royal palace that Kate is alive and well, public speculation persists. I will admit that it seems weird that the royals have not done a better job of addressing public concerns about Middleton’s whereabouts. Would it really be that hard to put out a quick video of Kate giving a direct address and saying, ‘Hey, uh, yeah, I’m good—no worries everyone’? Of course, if she did that, there would be plenty of theories about the video being a deepfake. Let’s face it: in the modern era, reality has ceased to exist and all that remains is the endlessly speculative nature of digital infotainment. Nobody really cares if Middleton is alive or dead, they just want to laugh, joke, and post about it. With that in mind, here are some of the internet’s best guesses as to what’s been happening with Middleton. [_A version of this article originally appeared on Gizmodo_](https://gizmodo.com/here-are-the-internets-dumbest-theories-about-kate-midd-1851350558)_._ The most prevalent conspiracy theory about the princess’s disappearance from public life is that she is dead. Conspiracy theorists have speculated that Middleton’s abdominal surgery went horribly wrong and that she did not survive. It’s not obvious to me how that makes any sense. If the princess died, wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to just tell the public? Why pretend like she’s still alive? The same logic involved here seems to animate [the classic Beatles “Paul is dead” conspiracy theory](https://www.beatlesbible.com/features/paul-is-dead/). Another theory related to the botched surgery scenario suggests that Kate may not be dead but is actually in a coma. This theory actually makes slightly more sense than the “dead” theory, since the royal family would actually have some incentive to pretend like things are fine in the hopes that an unconscious Kate might soon wake up. An alternate theory suggests that Middleton never actual had abdominal surgery and that the procedure she actually underwent was plastic surgery—likely involving her face. This theory would appear to have two primary variants: 1) the surgery went fine but it will take a little time for her to recover from it and 2) the surgery went horribly awry and now Middleton has to hide from public life until the royals can figure out how to fix the surgery. Can’t a royal princess just enjoy a day off? Some online speculators have claimed that Middleton is just taking some time for herself. This theory would make sense, if not for the fact that the entire internet/Western world is currently freaking out about her whereabouts. I would presume that the royals would obligate her to make an appearance, at that point. One popular theory is that Middleton has a body double, whom the royal family has deployed during her weird absence over the past few weeks. It doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that rich and famous people have body doubles. That said, it’s not clear why Middleton would need to deploy one right now. In an apparent recent effort to soothe public concerns over the princess, Prince William and someone CLAIMING to be Kate Middleton went on a public outing to a pet shop, where the duo were caught on video. Yes, William was seen walking with, uh...someone, at the shop. Internet geniuses quickly began scrutinizing the video and claimed that the woman with William was not actually the princess. I’m not sure how this fits in with the rest of the theories, but some online conspiracy nuts have speculated that King Charles is actually the one who recently died. I’m not sure why that would require Middleton to disappear from public life while Charles’s own son stays in the limelight, but there you have it. Charles [is really old](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68208157) and also has cancer, so it would make more sense that he is dead rather than Middleton. But he’s not dead. I don’t think. One of the less whacky theories that has circulated is that Middleton is actually getting a divorce from William and has taken leave from the royal family. So this theory goes, the royals are trying to pretend like everything’s okay and thus are deploying the body doubles/actresses/fake photos, etc., to create a Kate mirage to dispel any suspicions about her absence. This theory follows on the heels of a rumor that Prince William [cheated on Middleton with the Marchioness of Cholmondeley](https://www.thecut.com/article/rose-hanbury-denies-prince-william-affair.html). I don’t know who that is and I don’t care. One of the more popular (and silly) conspiracy theories is that Kate got a BBL—a Brazilian butt lift. You could dub this a subvariant of the plastic surgery theory. Internet trolls have been having a lot of fun joking about this one. This theory gained so much traction that reps close to the royal family [had to clarify](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/kate-middleton-location-conspiracy-theories-1234978303/) that Middleton had not gotten the procedure. It seems like every rich and famous person is currently using the magic weight loss drug Ozempic. Even though it seems destined to spur lots of negative health impacts and it gave one woman [endless diarrhea](https://nypost.com/2024/01/13/lifestyle/woman-suffers-life-threatening-bowel-injury-from-ozempic-suit/), the world’s most monied just can’t get enough of the stuff. Some have suggested that Middleton recently went on Ozempic and subsequently suffered a bowel-related “injury.” We may earn a commission from links on this page.

 When [the Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed](https://qz.com/baltimore-francis-scott-key-bridge-supply-chains-1851365754) in the early morning hours of Tuesday, there was almost immediately chatter on social media about potential conspiracy theories. In reality, the bridge collapsed because a container ship lost power and [crashed into a column](https://gizmodo.com/key-bridge-collapse-youtube-video-baltimore-maryland-1851365421), causing it to tumble into the river below. But many of the internet’s dumbest minds think they’ve found the “real” reason. The ridiculous ideas that have circulated since the bridge collapse have become so routine at this point that you can pretty much guarantee they’ll happen after every news event. Did you spot a touched-up family photo [of a princess](https://gizmodo.com/here-are-the-internets-dumbest-theories-about-kate-midd-1851350558)? She must be an AI-generated clone. Your favorite team didn’t win the Super Bowl? It must be a “[CIA psyop](https://gizmodo.com/joe-biden-super-bowl-conspiracy-taylor-swift-support-1851247753).” What really happened to cause the bridge collapse on Tuesday, according to the loudest voices on social media? We’ve compiled a list with some of the dumbest theories, including everything from the idea that explosive charges were scattered across the bridge to the theory that Ukraine was somehow responsible for the collapse. There’s also the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was behind it. Why on Earth would people believe such a thing? Because Obama was a producer on the 2023 Netflix movie [_Leave the World Behind_](https://gizmodo.com/leave-the-world-behind-netflix-apocalypse-thriller-cybe-1850891431), which has a scene where a giant ship crashes into a beach. Incredibly, this is the first time conspiracy theorists have pointed the finger at Obama over his association with the apocalyptic thriller. People were saying the same thing when AT&T had a nationwide outage [about a month ago](https://gizmodo.com/conspiracy-theories-run-wild-amid-mass-u-s-cell-outage-1851278496). [_A version of this article originally appeared on Gizmodo_](https://gizmodo.com/7-dumbest-conspiracy-theories-baltimore-bridge-collapse-1851367672).  There’s a certain breed of conspiracy theorist online who tries to turn literally anything that’s happening in the news into their own pet cause. So it makes sense that some people who are obsessed with the war in Ukraine, and Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022, would see Ukraine in this latest bridge collapse. The website ZeroHedge shared a screenshot that purports to show the captain of the Dali, the Singapore-flagged ship that caused the bridge collapse, was a man from Ukraine. ZeroHedge spread the idea in a [blog post on Tuesda](https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/watch-huge-bridge-baltimore-collapses-after-container-ship-strike)y and Russian-linked accounts on X have [run with the claim](https://twitter.com/Alex_Oloyede2/status/1772683051421622424) as well. But as the BBC’s Shayan Sardarizadeh reports, the ship had a crew of 22 people, and all of them were from India. The Dali apparently had a Ukrainian captain for about five months in 2016, but that’s not the case anymore. It’s not clear whether the image that’s circulating purporting to show a Ukrainian captain is doctored, and unfortunately, the Wayback Machine doesn’t have a proper archive of that page. Whatever the case, that’s not what the page looks like [right now](https://www.balticshipping.com/vessel/imo/9697428/seafarers) and no one has produced any evidence Ukraine was involved in any way with the collapse. We’ve all seen the video from a YouTube livestream that captured the moment that container ship hit the Key Bridge. But have you seen the “alternate angle”? The video above has been shared widely, claiming to reveal a newly discovered camera angle that shows the truth of explosions on the bridge. The idea seems to have first been spread by an account called Cackenbools but it’s since [been deleted](https://twitter.com/KvotheTheArcane/status/1772530463581651193). However, plenty of other accounts are still spreading the fake information. In reality, the video is from 2022 and shows the Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait. We know this because plenty of [news outlets](https://youtu.be/fxgWCsampJg) at the time covered it at the time and 2022 isn’t exactly ancient history. But that hasn’t stopped incredibly stupid people from sharing this video as something captured from the Key Bridge in Maryland.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the completely unhinged congresswoman from Georgia, [tweeted](https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1772663041445724654) about the bridge collapse on Tuesday, demanding a “serious investigation.” Greene included a video from a conspiracy theory account called MJTruthUltra, which insists the ship was “[hacked](https://twitter.com/MJTruthUltra/status/1772605681545187500).” While we don’t yet know what caused the power outage on the ship, there’s absolutely no evidence that the ship was hacked, whatever that’s supposed to mean exactly. “Is this an intentional attack or an accident?” Greene tweeted on Tuesday, apparently taking time away from her completely normal theories on [Jewish space lasers](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4513058-marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-lasers/).  One X account, controlled by someone named Jimmy Corsetti, was really reaching with his theory. The ship that crashed into the bridge was leaving Baltimore with a final destination in Sri Lanka. And, as Corsetti points out the Sri Lanka flag features a lion. But then Corsetti really goes into nutcase conspiracy theory land, pointing out that the ship in _Leave the World Behind_ is called the White Lion_. Never mind_ the fact that Sri Lanka’s flag features a golden lion. Yes, conspiracy theorists continue to insist the bad event of the day was too similar to a Hollywood movie for comfort. But, no, there’s no evidence Obama had anything to do with the collapse of the Key Bridge. And you’re reaching if you try to connect the flag of a random country with a movie.  There were a surprisingly large number of different variations on the Obama conspiracy theory, including some new photoshopped images like the one above. “In 2023, the Obamas produced a movie called Leave the World Behind, where a cyberattack causes a massive container ship to lose power & crash,” conspiracy theorist Matt Wallace [wrote](https://twitter.com/MattWallace888/status/1772689581533524059) on Tuesday. “Months later a massive container ship loses power & crashes into Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, CAUSING A DEADLY COLLAPSE.” The question becomes why would the puppetmasters who pull the strings would telegraph their plan with a sci-fi movie before executing their dastardly deeds. The answer, according to the conspiracy theorists, is that they get a sick thrill out of “predictive programming,” or showing exactly what they’re going to do before they do it. Cool theory. The idea that explosive charges were affixed to the bridge surfaced almost immediately since it looked like some flashes of fire happened as the bridge collapsed. But as the Community Note above points out these were almost certainly caused by the kinds of flashes that you’ll see when electric cables snap. There’s no evidence that any kind of explosives were present on the bridge.  Incredibly, there were plenty of people who thought the bridge collapsed because of racial diversity and inclusion initiatives at U.S. companies, sometimes referred to as DEI. How is that supposed to work? Your guess is as good as ours. But it seems like you can blame pretty much anything on DEI these days. “Did anti-white business practices cause this disaster?” one particularly dumb X user wrote on Tuesday. Racists also called Baltimore’s mayor the “DEI mayor,” in [tweets on Tuesday](http://%20https:/twitter.com/iamyesyouareno/status/1772637057883471925), continuing their long-practiced tradition of insisting anyone who is Black only got their job through diversity initiatives. Other far-right figures insisted America [can’t even build](https://twitter.com/VDAREJamesK/status/1772520096709193744) bridges anymore. The Francis Scott Key bridge that collapsed in Baltimore was first opened in 1977, to be clear. If you think there were structural issues with the bridge—and there’s no evidence that there was—take it up with the 1970s.

It took mere minutes for unsubstantiated theories to take over.  Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Rebecca Droke / AFP / Getty; Epoxydude / Getty. July 14, 2024, 5:24 PM ET “Joe Biden sent the orders” was the first thing Representative Mike Collins of Georgia [posted](https://x.com/MikeCollinsGA/status/1812257581655531669) following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump yesterday. To clarify that he was not being hyperbolic, Collins [followed up by saying that](https://x.com/MikeCollinsGA/status/1812260150973018595) Biden should be charged with “inciting an assassination.” Collins was one of the highest-profile people to boost a conspiracy theory almost immediately after a gunman fired eight shots during a Trump rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, yesterday afternoon—but he was far from the only one (and [not even](https://x.com/RepGregSteube/status/1812259606183457199) the sole member of Congress). Within moments of the shooting, some Trump supporters started speculating online about the Secret Service’s complicity. “To deny that something is fishy here is to be willfully blind,” one Instagram meme account with more than 800,000 followers posted in a caption underneath a picture of the grounds where the rally was held. “He was counter sniped within seconds of pulling the trigger. So Secret Service knew he was there.” Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump right after the shooting, [publicly](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1812296672510111853) [wondered](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1812296672510111853) whether the Secret Service made a “deliberate” choice to overlook security gaps. Left-wing accounts posted their own “false flag” conspiracies. The [now-famous photo](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/trump-assassination-attempt-evan-vucci/679011/) of Trump surrounded by Secret Service agents, pumping his fist with small streaks of blood across his face, was [simply too good](https://x.com/AmarAmarasingam/status/1812308983035642121) to not have been staged, some people posted. _Semafor_ [reported](https://www.semafor.com/article/07/14/2024/top-democrat-pushed-reporters-to-consider-staged-shooting) that Dmitri Mehlhorn, a Democratic strategist, emailed journalists yesterday urging them to consider the possibility that the shooting was staged by the right to make Trump look good. (He later apologized.) This is almost always how it goes now when something notable happens in the news: It becomes instant conspiracy fodder. Wildfires were actually started by massive laser beams. The rollout of 5G [caused the pandemic](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/05/great-5g-conspiracy/611317/). Kate Middleton’s extended absence from public appearances earlier this year was because of [some sinister royal plot](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/02/kate-middleton-conspiracy-theories/677603/). Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce aren’t actually dating—they’re doing a crossover marketing psyop [to boost their profiles](https://www.npr.org/2023/10/13/1197954126/taylor-swift-relationship-eras-movie) (and [undermine Trump](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-voters-maga-conspiracy-theory-taylor-swift-travis-kelce-rcna136829)). These theories are obviously far less pernicious than ones demonizing migrants or [falsely](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/children-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-epidemic/620845/) [accusing people of](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/children-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-epidemic/620845/) [trafficking](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/children-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-epidemic/620845/) [children](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/children-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-epidemic/620845/), but they speak to the same idea: Absolutely nothing is ever as it seems. Online platforms such as Facebook and X have long been accelerants for baseless information and conspiracy theories, but these things aren’t just the product of an information crisis that can be resolved with education and by reining in social media. When conspiracy theories become the default logic for many Americans in understanding all major moments, they suggest a more fundamental breakdown. In a system that doesn’t resolve social atomization or [economic precarity](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10100481/), or mitigate the darkest impulses of technology companies, people will end up trying to make their own order amid intense disorder. It’s not surprising that solutions made inside a Russian nesting doll of messy conditions end up also being very messy. Conspiracy theories become the primary logic that begets more disorder, which begets more conspiracy theories. The cycle repeats itself. [Ali Breland](https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ali-breland/) is a staff writer at _The Atlantic_.

Soon after a bullet [grazed Donald Trump’s ear](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/13/trump-rally-gun-shots-pennsylvania), the conspiracy theory hashtags started appearing. Social media discourse on the shooting was immediately punctuated by #staged, #fakeassassination and #stagedshooting as a familiar refrain took hold: don’t trust what they tell you. In a sign of how unstoppable these narratives become, the focus of distrust this time was [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump), one of the arch-proponents of the argument that mainstream media and the establishment in general cannot be trusted. X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, was the fulcrum of post-shooting scepticism. One post on X, with the hashtag #staged, queried whether a bullet really tore past Trump’s ear. It has been viewed more than 500,000 times. “If it grazed him then where did the travelling bullet go as it would’ve continued flight towards those ppl?” it asked. Much of the sceptical commentary relies on analysing images and footage taken by official media outlets at the Pennsylvania rally. Another tweet from an account critical of Trump had 2.1m views as of Monday, although it did not carry one of the hashtags that proliferated around the internet from Saturday into Sunday. “A presidential candidate got ‘shot’ in the face and our collective reaction as a country was to laugh because nothing has ever looked so fake,” it said. One conclusion experts are drawing from these posts is that they show conspiracy theories are not partisan and are not just a feature of rightwing discourse. Since Covid and the wave of scepticism it unleashed, it has become standard for vast numbers of people online to doubt the consensus view and interpret events in a way that rationalises their own worldview. “Conspiracy theories are not limited to one political persuasion,” said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a campaign group, adding that such viewpoints were an attempt to “place events in a narrative that makes sense to us” and that “reinforce our beliefs and biases”. “Because of the high emotions around the \[US\] election, it reinforces people’s desire to fit what is happening around a pre-determined narrative that satisfies their political perspectives either way,” he said. This has gone hand in hand with distrust of the media, even if much of the sceptical commentary around the shooting has relied on analysing images and footage taken by official media outlets at the Pennsylvania rally. Conspiracy theories emanating from people with leftwing or liberal leanings has given rise to the term “Blueanon”, in reference to the blue Democratic party. The term is a derivation of “QAnon”, the [baseless pro-Trump, rightwing conspiracy theory](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/25/qanon-conspiracy-theory-explained-trump-what-is) that a world-controlling satanic elite is operating a child abuse ring. Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor of digital platforms and ethics at the University of Oregon, said it “doesn’t serve the debate very well” to equate QAnon with the other side of the political spectrum, even if it makes for a neat pun. “When people are panicking about Trump and voicing conspiracy theories, they are often panicking about something specific related to Trump or people within the Maga orbit,” she said. QAnon devotees were heavily involved in the January riot on the Capitol and the theory has been referred to by mainstream politicians on the right, with Trump calling QAnon followers “people who love our country”. Conservative social media accounts have weighed in with their own conspiracy theories on the shooting, querying how Thomas Crooks was able to [come so close to assassinating Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/14/trump-rally-shooting-fbi-names-20-year-old-from-bethel-park-as-subject-involved). A popular rightwing account on X posted on Sunday: “You’re telling me the Secret Service let a guy climb up on a roof with a rifle only 150 yards from Trump? Inside job.” The post, flagged by disinformation experts at NewsGuard, has had more than 7m views. Trump shooting theories have been consumed on a vast scale since Saturday. Posts on X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok that used conspiracy theory hashtags may have been viewed up to 595m times within 11 hours of the shooting, according to Cyabra, an Israeli disinformation analysis firm. The conspiracy hashtags received 404,000 “engagements”, Cyabra said, referring to likes, comments and re-posts. Alongside posts from authentic accounts claiming that Trump staged the shooting to boost his election chances, Cyabra found evidence of coordinated attempts to propagate a false narrative. It investigated 3,115 social media profiles pushing the hashtags and found that 45% of them were “fake” accounts, a term covering a range of bad actors from automated accounts to sockpuppet operators, who use fictitious identities to pump out a specific narrative. “The false narrative asserting that Trump staged the shooting was predominantly disseminated on X,” said Cyabra analysts in a report. “Numerous accounts suggested that Trump, anticipating an electoral loss to Biden, orchestrated the incident to attract more voters and alter the prevailing narrative in the United States.” It is not just the presidency being contested, but any narrative related to it.

Accusations that the assassination attempt on Saturday was staged have [proliferated all over social media](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyr7pyd0687o). Many on the left are arguing that the attack was meant to garner pity for Trump and ensure a kind of “[Reichstag fire](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/26/blind-chance-or-plot-exhumation-may-help-solve-puzzle-of-1933-reichstag-blaze)” scenario so Trump could seize power unilaterally. Many of these focused on the photos of Trump in the immediate aftermath, his fist raised in defiance, as evidence that the entire event was set up to garner sympathy and show the ex-president as unbowed. Meanwhile, on the right, rumours swirled that it was an assassination attempt by President Biden – on Sunday, [Alex Jones](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/24/alex-jones-infowars-liquidate-sandy-hook-payments) blasted out an email with a subject line that read in part: “Desperate Deep State Will Try to Assassinate Trump Again”. None of this is surprising – the United States has a long history of presidential assassination and assassination attempts, and a long love affair with [conspiracy theories](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/14/renee-diresta-invisble-rulers-internet-algorithms-media-disinformation-ai) of all kinds. But the ease with which conspiracists of all political alignments have been able to assimilate Saturday’s shocking, unexpected news with their preformed opinions tells us what political conspiracy theories do for people and how they operate. In the wake of breaking, confusing news, conspiracy theories offer the illusory promise of an explanation. Not only that, but a conspiracy theory also offers a narrative of history that is resilient, one that continues to hold up no matter what transpires. If you believe, for example, that the “[deep state](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/30/trump-loyalists-deep-state-blacklist-american-accountability-foundation)” is engaged in a long-running, omnipresent campaign to defeat Donald Trump, then anything that happens can be seen as further proof of that. Presidential assassinations – and assassination attempts – are among the most destabilising, confusing and terrifying political events. Alongside major attacks like Pearl Harbor and 9/11, they can change the course of history for ever. So it’s not surprising that such events attract paranoid musings – they proliferate immediately, almost as a sort of self-defence mechanism against the shock of the new. The United States, in particular, has had a long history of yoking conspiracy theories to political assassinations. In 1886, ex-priest Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy wrote a bestseller, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome_,_ in which he claimed (among other things) to be a confidant of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had, in fact, represented Chiniquy in 1850 as a young lawyer on a minor matter, but in Chiniquy’s telling, he went on multiple private visits to the White House, where Lincoln purportedly told him that not only were the Catholics behind the civil war, but that if anything were to happen to him, it would be the Jesuits who had pulled the trigger. More recently, they’ve been used to shape reactions in the dramatic aftermath of breaking news. Immediately in the wake of John F Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, everyone from organised crime to the KKK to Cuban exiles to the CIA was accused of being behind the attack – anyone, it seemed, was more plausible than Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone and using an antiquated rifle. Five years later, when Kennedy’s brother Robert was also killed during his presidential candidacy, once again conspiracists alleged that the killer, Sirhan Sirhan, had been brainwashed or was otherwise part of a larger conspiracy. Similar theories surrounded Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, even though he wasn’t a presidential candidate, and this is to say nothing of the various political assassination attempts carried out _by_ the US government in _other_ countries – in Congo, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Indonesia, as well as the successful coup of Salvador Allende in Chile – and the resulting conspiracy theories they engendered. As the US has long been involved in actual conspiracies (including against its own citizens, such as the FBI’s surveillance program [Cointelpro](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/07/fbi-office-break-in-1971-come-forward-documents), or the CIA’s experimentation on Americans, [MKUultra](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2016/aug/15/netflix-stranger-things-project-mkultra)), the problem is not necessarily in entertaining beliefs – rather, the danger is in using them as a filter against breaking news. It’s natural to want to make sense of something that seems to come from nowhere, changing everything and throwing us off kilter – in such moments of disorientation, [any kind of explanation](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/14/cool-heads-needed-as-political-fringe-dwellers-spread-disinformation-after-trump-shooting) can help reestablish some kind of sense to the world. But when news breaks, facts and motives aren’t at all clear, which is when conspiracy theories emerge as a means of filling that gap, providing a narrative that explains everything that’s happened and what it means. It’s why we turn to them again and again, and why they’re not likely to go away anytime soon. For all the certainty these theories have offered regarding the potential impact of Saturday’s act – that it’s clinched Trump’s election, or that it’s proof that the deep state will stop at nothing to bring him down – it’s far too soon to say for sure. Presidential assassinations have certainly had large impacts on American history: had Lincoln lived past 1865, for example, his successor Andrew Johnson wouldn’t have been in a position to kill Reconstruction. But the effects of assassination _attempts_ are harder to measure. The failed assassination of [George Wallace](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/08/george-wallace-alabama-governor-segregation-forever-university-building) didn’t get him any nearer to the presidency in 1972, and the two assassination attempts of President Gerald Ford didn’t save his re-election campaign in 1976. Actual, verified information takes time; law enforcement has said they still know [relatively little about the shooter](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/15/trump-shooter-motive) or his motives. In the coming days, some aspects of this story are going to come into crystal-clear focus. Some may, as with the Kennedy assassinations, remain forever murky. Given all we know about the history of the United States’s covert operations, it’s impossible right now to rule out any possibility of some kind of conspiracy. But what remains true is that any such revelations, should they ever come, won’t come from random social media accounts, and they won’t come from Alex Jones. * Colin Dickey is the author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, and Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy

Effective conspiracy theories draw in believers by appearing to give a glimpse behind the curtain, of how the world really works, while preserving a sense that even in the modern technological era, there are still mysteries beyond most people’s understanding. The problem is that most conspiracies come at a cost. It might seem harmless to believe aliens have made contact with humans, but suggesting that [terror attacks were “false flags”](https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/false-flags.php) or that [secret societies are abducting children](https://www.reuters.com/article/world/fact-check-35000-malnourished-and-caged-children-were-not-recently-rescued-idUSKBN23M2DX/) can fracture communities, provoke violence, and tear families apart. That mix of silly and serious, compulsion and repulsion can make books on conspiracy theories very compelling. These are five of my favourites – all _about_ conspiracies, rather than spreading them, of course. Forewarned is fore-armed, after all – knowing how conspiracy theories work, what they have in common, and how they’ve spread before is crucial to understanding how they might be stopped. [Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK](https://www.posner.com/case-closed) by Gerald Posner ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Most Americans](https://news.gallup.com/poll/514310/decades-later-americans-doubt-lone-gunman-killed-jfk.aspx) believe that Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t act alone when he killed John F Kennedy – but this book should change their minds. It’s both meticulously reported and pacy as a thriller, and if it doesn’t convince you of the truth of the Kennedy assassination, nothing will. [Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World](https://guardianbookshop.com/doppelganger-9781802061956) by Naomi Klein -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most people who write about conspiracy theories do so because they’ve been drawn to that world through their own curiosity. That wasn’t the case for Naomi Klein, who was largely dragged in against her will. Through her career, Klein had often been confused with her fellow writer Naomi Wolf. But while once this was harmless (if annoying), when Wolf went down the Covid rabbit hole, it was anything but. Suddenly, Wolf was [spreading dangerous misinformation](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/05/naomi-wolf-banned-twitter-spreading-vaccine-myths) about Covid vaccines – and people were still mixing up the two women. This book is Klein’s story of following her titular double into conspiracy-land. [Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History](https://guardianbookshop.com/voodoo-histories-9780099478966) by David Aaronovitch ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A confession: this book is something of a comfort blanket for the sort of person who has never been taken in by conspiracy theories and feels something close to disdain for the sort of person who is. That makes it a fun read for those of us who want a potted history of conspiracy theories throughout the ages and why they’re such nonsense – just don’t expect it to provide much of an explanation as to why and how they pull people in. [Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy](https://guardianbookshop.com/culture-warlords-9781913183950) by Talia Lavin ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To write this book, Talia Lavin went where most of us would be loath to tread, spending a year or so of her life in some of the nastiest far-right corners of the internet. Through a mixture of undercover online work with various personas and some gutsy attendance at in-person conferences, she shows not just the workings of the fringes, but how their views are “laundered” into the mainstream by seemingly more innocuous influencers. [The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory](https://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/219718597/suspicious-in-united-states-of-paranoia-its-not-just-you) by Jesse Walker ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This book flipped how I thought about conspiracy theories for good. The core of its argument is a challenge to the view held by most of us that conspiracy theories belong to the fringes of society and the fringes of history. Walker uses American history – and its mythmaking – to suggest that conspiracy theories, and their accompanying sense of “us v them”, were essential to American nation-making. It makes for a compelling, if unsettling, read. The Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World by James Ball is published by Bloomsbury. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at [guardianbookshop.com](https://guardianbookshop.com/The-Other-Pandemic-9781526642516). Delivery charges may apply.

Several [elected](https://tennesseestar.com/news/tennessee-democrats-mock-former-president-trump-wonder-if-apparent-assassination-attempt-was-staged/khousler/2024/07/14/) [officials](https://mynorthwest.com/3965997/rantz-mayor-aberdeen-donald-trump-assassination-attempt-staged/), along with [a top political aide](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/14/us/trump-shooting-news-biden/a-democratic-donor-draws-republican-ire-over-a-martyr-comment-about-trump-days-before-the-attack) for the billionaire Reid Hoffman, recently suggested, without proof, that former President Donald J. Trump may have staged an attempt to assassinate him in July. Mark Hamill, an actor and [advocate](https://www.nytimes.com/article/kamala-harris-celebrity-endorsements.html) for Democratic causes with more than five million followers on X, criticized a conservative policy proposal by [railing against ideas that were not part of the document.](https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/the-lefts-myths-about-project-2025) And last month, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign [misleadingly suggested](https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36EH4T8), in posts viewed millions of times, that Mr. Trump was confused about his whereabouts during a campaign stop. Her followers seized on the posts to claim that Mr. Trump was suffering from cognitive decline. For years, the discussion about misinformation online has focused on falsehoods circulating on the American right. But in recent weeks, a flurry of conspiracy theories and false narratives have also been swirling on the left. Some misinformation researchers are worried that the new spate of left-leaning conspiracy theories could further polarize political discourse before the November election. More than one-third of President Biden’s supporters believed the assassination attempt [may have been staged](https://pro.morningconsult.com/analysis/trump-assassination-attempt-polling), according to a poll in July by Morning Consult. “I don’t anticipate that we will collectively become less conspiratorial,” said [Adam Enders](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9307120/), an associate professor of political science at the University of Louisville. “If anything, the closer we get to Election Day, the more it’ll increase.” Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F03%2Ftechnology%2Fleft-wing-misinformation-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F03%2Ftechnology%2Fleft-wing-misinformation-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F03%2Ftechnology%2Fleft-wing-misinformation-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F03%2Ftechnology%2Fleft-wing-misinformation-conspiracy-theories.html).

Shortly after generative artificial intelligence hit the mainstream, researchers warned that chatbots would create a [dire problem](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/technology/ai-chatbots-disinformation.html): As disinformation became easier to create, conspiracy theories would spread rampantly. Now, researchers wonder if chatbots might also offer a solution. [DebunkBot](https://www.debunkbot.com/conspiracies), an A.I. chatbot designed by researchers to “very effectively persuade” users to stop believing unfounded conspiracy theories, made significant and long-lasting progress at changing people’s convictions, according to a [study published on Thursday](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq1814) in the journal Science. Indeed, false theories are believed by [up to half of the American public](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajps.12084) and can have damaging consequences, like [discouraging vaccinations](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/technology/covid-vaccines-misinformation.html) or [fueling discrimination](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/us/antisemitism-republicans-trump.html). The new findings challenge the widely held belief that facts and logic cannot combat conspiracy theories. The DebunkBot, built on the technology that underlies ChatGPT, may offer a practical way to channel facts. “The work does overturn a lot of how we thought about conspiracies,” said Gordon Pennycook, a psychology professor at Cornell University and author of the study. Until now, conventional wisdom held that once someone fell down the conspiratorial rabbit hole, no amount of arguing or explaining would pull that person out. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F12%2Fhealth%2Fchatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F12%2Fhealth%2Fchatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F12%2Fhealth%2Fchatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F12%2Fhealth%2Fchatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html).

Whether it is the mistaken idea that the moon landings never happened or the false claim that Covid jabs contain microchips, conspiracy theories abound, [sometimes with dangerous consequences](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22000823). Now researchers have found that such beliefs can be altered by a chat with artificial intelligence (AI). “Conventional wisdom will tell you that people who believe in conspiracy theories rarely, if ever, change their mind, especially according to evidence,” said Dr Thomas Costello, a co-author of the study from American University. That, he added, is thought to be down to people adopting such beliefs to meet various needs – such as a desire for control. However, the new study offers a different stance. “Our findings fundamentally challenge the view that evidence and arguments are of little use once someone has ‘gone down the rabbit hole’ and come to believe a conspiracy theory,” the team wrote. Crucially, the researchers said, the approach relies on an AI system that can draw on a vast array of information to produce conversations that encourage critical thinking and provide bespoke, fact-based counterarguments. “The AI knew in advance what the person believed and, because of that, it was able to tailor its persuasion to their precise belief system,” said Costello. [Writing in the journal Science](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq1814), Costello and colleagues reported how they carried out a series of experiments involving 2,190 participants with a belief in conspiracy theories. While the experiments varied slightly, all participants were asked to describe a particular conspiracy theory they believed and the evidence they thought supported it. This was then fed into [an AI system called “DebunkBot”](https://www.debunkbot.com/conspiracies). Participants were also asked to rate on a 100-point scale how true they thought the conspiracy theory was. They then knowingly undertook a three-round back-and-forth conversation with the AI system about their conspiracy theory or a non-conspiracy topic. Afterwards, participants once more rated how true they thought their conspiracy theory was. The results revealed those who discussed non-conspiracy topics only slightly lowered their “truth” rating afterwards. However, those who discussed their conspiracy theory with AI showed, on average, a 20% drop in their belief that it was true. The team said the effects appeared to hold for at least two months, while the approach worked for almost all types of conspiracy theory – although not those that were true. [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/12/ai-can-change-belief-in-conspiracy-theories-study-finds#EmailSignup-skip-link-14) Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion The researchers added that the size of the effect depended on factors including how important the belief was to the participant and their trust in AI. “About one in four people who began the experiment believing a conspiracy theory came out the other end without that belief,” said Costello. “In most cases, the AI can only chip away – making people a bit more sceptical and uncertain – but a select few were disabused of their conspiracy entirely.” The researchers added that reducing belief in one conspiracy theory appeared to reduce participants’ belief in other such ideas, at least to a small degree, while the approach could have applications in the real world – for example, AI could reply to posts relating to conspiracy theories on social media. Prof Sander van der Linden of the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the work, questioned whether people would engage with such AI voluntarily in the real world. He also said it was unclear if similar results would be found if participants had chatted with an anonymous human, while there are also questions about how the AI was convincing conspiracy believers, given the system also uses strategies such as empathy and affirmation. But, he added: “Overall, it’s a really novel and potentially important finding and a nice illustration of how AI can be leveraged to fight misinformation.”

After each conversation, participants were asked the same rating questions. The researchers followed up with all the participants 10 days after the experiment, and then two months later, to assess whether their views had changed following the conversation with the AI bot. The participants reported a 20% reduction of belief in their chosen conspiracy theory on average, suggesting that talking to the bot had fundamentally changed some people’s minds. “Even in a lab setting, 20% is a large effect on changing people’s beliefs,” says Zhang. “It might be weaker in the real world, but even 10% or 5% would still be very substantial.” The authors sought to safeguard against AI models’ tendency to make up information—known as [hallucinating](https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/06/18/1093440/what-causes-ai-hallucinate-chatbots/)—by employing a professional fact-checker to evaluate the accuracy of 128 claims the AI had made. Of these, 99.2% were found to be true, while 0.8% were deemed misleading. None were found to be completely false. One explanation for this high degree of accuracy is that a lot has been written about conspiracy theories on the internet, making them very well represented in the model’s training data, says David G. Rand, a professor at MIT Sloan who also worked on the project. The adaptable nature of GPT-4 Turbo means it could easily be connected to different platforms for users to interact with in the future, he adds. “You could imagine just going to conspiracy forums and inviting people to do their own research by debating the chatbot,” he says. “Similarly, social media could be hooked up to LLMs to post corrective responses to people sharing conspiracy theories, or we could buy Google search ads against conspiracy-related search terms like ‘Deep State.’” The research upended the authors’ preconceived notions about how receptive people were to solid evidence debunking not only conspiracy theories, but also other beliefs that are not rooted in good-quality information, says Gordon Pennycook, an associate professor at Cornell University who also worked on the project. “People were remarkably responsive to evidence. And that’s really important,” he says. “Evidence does matter.”

Conspiracy theories have a habit of [spiking](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-02957-y) following natural disasters, and [Hurricane Helene](https://www.fastcompany.com/91200265/why-hurricane-helene-could-disrupt-the-semiconductor-industry-north-carolina) is no exception. As the death toll topped [200](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/live-blog/hurricane-helene-live-updates-rcna173767) on Friday morning, the conspiracy theorists are out in full force spreading misinformation about everything from voter manipulation to a geoengineered industrial land grab. One theory that has gained the most traction online is the idea that the storm was not a natural occurrence but instead engineered to devastate North Carolina and create access to the land for lithium mining. “Can I say what I find suspicious as shit?” said one user in a video that totaled more than [1.8 million views](https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4024449) before it was removed. “That one of the areas affected by Hurricane Helene is the world’s largest lithium deposit, and the DOD just entered into an agreement with this company right here to mine lithium for electric cars starting in 2025. Now that area is completely devastated.” Another user encouraged viewers to look up the theory for themselves, adding, “Just look up flooding and lithium and discover the rabbit hole you go down.” The video had more than [204,900 views](https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4024455) before it was also deleted. Richard Rood, a climate professor at the University of Michigan, says that Hurricane Helene “is a recurring type of weather event, influenced by accumulation of heat due to greenhouse gas increases. We have made the storm more dangerous with the extra heat and moisture it has due to global warming.” However, he points to a history of scientists talking about weaponizing weather. “This was right after World War II. It was an idea that died its natural death due to its impossibility—really, its ridiculousness,” he says. “It does, however, leave a seed for conspiracy theories.” These claims have also taken off outside TikTok. “As the United States government and its buddies in the central banking corporate crime syndicates stand to make billions and trillions of dollars off of these lithium deposits that are underneath towns underneath homes, underneath schools, and they can’t get access unless the land is somehow completely cleaned off and available for mining, what better way to do that than by washing away the people who live there and all that they own, and blaming it on climate change?” prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist Stew Peters says in a [video](https://rumble.com/v5h32ol-the-lithium-motive-hurricane-helene-a-secret-lithium-land-grab.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp). Expand to continue reading ↓ Eve Upton-Clark is a freelance features writer based in New York covering internet culture and society. [More](https://www.fastcompany.com/user/eveuptonclark)

He posits that there is a mole within Donald J. Trump’s Secret Service detail and warns that the former president should bolster his private security to “watch the watchers.” He says he is skeptical that the F.B.I. will “get to the bottom” of the first attempted assassination against Mr. Trump — and even if it does, he declares, “I don’t believe that they would give us the truth.” He has repeatedly raised the possibility that the shooter who tried to assassinate Mr. Trump in July at an open-air rally in Butler, Pa., did not act alone, and that the gunman who was arrested last month in what the F.B.I. described as a [second assassination attempt](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/trump-shooting-golf-course.html) at his Florida golf course was an “asset” of a foreign adversary who was being “handled.” Representative Eli Crane, a first-term Republican from Arizona, has been everywhere that will have him, promoting conspiracy theories about the assassination attempts against Mr. Trump, despite all evidence that such theories are false. And far from sidelining or attempting to silence him, Republican leaders have given him a prominent platform to air his outlandish claims at the highest levels, lending credence to the conspiracy theories spread by him and others on the far right. Though he was left off a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting, the Republican leaders of the panel invited him and Representative Cory Mills of Florida, another right-wing lawmaker who has embraced conspiracy theories about the first assassination attempt, to testify at their first public hearing. Mr. Mills is among the Republicans accompanying Mr. Trump to a rally in Butler on Saturday. Mr. Crane and Representative Cory Mills were both left off the bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempts on former President Donald J. Trump, but were invited to testify at the first hearing last month. Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Feli-crane-trump-assassination-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Feli-crane-trump-assassination-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Feli-crane-trump-assassination-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Feli-crane-trump-assassination-conspiracy-theories.html).

In the wake of the [devastation](https://www.fastcompany.com/91201680/tropical-storm-helene-left-apocalyptic-damage-appalachian-tourist-town) of [Hurricane Helene](https://www.fastcompany.com/section/hurricane-helene) in the United States this week, a new storm emerged on social media — [false rumors](https://www.fastcompany.com/91204157/conspiracy-theories-about-hurricane-helene-all-over-tiktok) about how disaster funds have been used, and even claims that officials control the weather. Local and national government officials say they are trying to combat the rumors, including one spread by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. One of the more far-fetched rumors is that Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits. Others accuse the administration of President Joe Biden of using federal disaster funds to help migrants in the country illegally, or suggest officials are deliberately abandoning bodies in the cleanup. Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X Thursday night: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” The conspiracy theories come at a pivotal time for rescue and recovery efforts following the storm, one of the deadliest U.S. hurricanes this century. And the presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is just over a month away. Republicans and Democrats alike say the rumors are causing problems. “I just talked to one Senator that has had 15 calls TODAY about why we don’t stop …….. ‘fill in the blank,'” said Kevin Corbin, a Republican in the North Carolina Senate — a state that is one of the hardest hit by Helene. “98% chance it’s not true and if it is a problem, somebody is aware and on it,” he wrote on Facebook. Expand to continue reading ↓

Far-right congresswoman [Marjorie Taylor Greene](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/marjorie-taylor-greene) is facing condemnation following several conspiratorial comments amid the devastation of Hurricane Helene that seemed to suggest she believed the US government can control the weather. In a post last week shared with her 1.2 million X followers, the US House representative from [Georgia](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/state-of-georgia) wrote: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” Greene does not specify to whom “they” is referring, but she has [a history](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/26/republican-congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-cpac) of promoting conspiracy theories around the federal government and other groups. She appeared to double down on these comments [with a post](https://x.com/mtgreenee/status/1842758787087704494) on Saturday, sharing a clip from a 2013 CBS News broadcast about experimental efforts to induce rain and lightning using lasers. “CBS, nine years ago, talked about lasers controlling the weather,” Greene wrote, apparently mistaking the year of the broadcast. Greene, who is no stranger to misinformation including once raising the idea of [Jewish space lasers being behind wildfire](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon-wildfires-space-laser-rothschild-execute.html) outbreaks, was met with a wave of criticism for her blatantly false statements. The US government’s top disaster relief official [condemned on Sunday](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fema-chief-calls-false-claims-about-governments-helene-response-truly-dangerous) false claims made about Helene and its relief efforts, stating that such conspiracy theories, including those [made by Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/04/hurricane-helene-conspiracy-theories-election-misinformation) as he seeks a second presidency, are causing fear in people who need assistance and “demoralizing” the workers who are providing assistance. “It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” said Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do.” Shawn Harris, who is running for Greene’s congressional seat, condemned the incumbent’s comments. “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s conspiracy theories are sickening, but she does it to distract from her failed effort to block crucial funding for Fema as Hurricane Helene was making landfall,” Harris wrote [in a post](https://x.com/ShawnForGeorgia/status/1842798730103206117) on X. Ryan Maue, a meteorologist and popular internet personality, seemed to [poke fun](https://x.com/RyanMaue/status/1842260476853370968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1842260476853370968%7Ctwgr%5E4be35b48afabd69588b967f2df387cd9dbb343ca%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2F2024%2F10%2F04%2Fmarjorie-taylor-greene-weather-tweet-conspiracy-theory%2F) at Greene’s comments while also factchecking her false claims. He suggested on X that some conspiracy theories turn out to be true – but added: “I can assure you that the [Hurricane Helene](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/hurricane-helene) weather modification theory is not one of them. “I would know, too.” In an email to his supporters, the Republican US senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina also seemed to condemn conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene, though he did not specify the rightwing source of the theories. “The destruction caused by Helene is incomprehensible and has left many communities in western North Carolina absolutely devastated. The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort,” the [email stated](https://www.hendersonvillelightning.com/news/14434-tillis-warns-against-political-posturing-finger-pointing-conspiracy-theories.html). In an opinion piece on Saturday by its editorial board, North Carolina’s Charlotte Observer [criticized](https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article293483114.html#storylink=cpy) Trump because of his falsehoods over the government response to Helene, saying the state’s affected parts were “not a political football” and “not a campaign opportunity”. Criticism of Greene’s conspiracy theories even made it to the sports world, with the tennis legend Martina Navratilova using her platform to call out not only Greene as well as Trump’s running mate in November’s election, JD Vance. Vance had praised Greene at a rally just hours after she posted her conspiracies. “Marj is even more stupid than we thought possible,” [Navratilova](https://x.com/Martina/status/1842271267774136563?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1842271267774136563%7Ctwgr%5E1ec5dac5c515a2958540165f6f2833615cd2c723%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirstsportz.com%2Fmartina-navratilova-calls-out-republican-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-conspiracy-theory-about-hurricane-helene-and-jd-vance-for-supporting-her%2F) wrote on X. “And Vance is not stupid – he is just a cowardly sycophant. Which is actually worse.” Greene is also facing criticism for her hypocrisy of peddling conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene while she was [photographed in attendance](https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-criticized-for-attending-football-game-as-hurricane-helene-batters-georgia/ss-AA1ruyOA?ocid=UE09DHP) at the University of Alabama’s home football game against the University of Georgia with Trump on 28 September. She reportedly left her state of Georgia to attend the game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, while Helene devastated communities across the state she was elected to represent.

Wildly improbable conspiracy theories about Hurricanes Helene and Milton have spread largely unchecked on social media. The storms were engineered to clear the way for lithium mining. They were sent to help the Democrats in next month’s election. They were formed by weather-controlling lasers. The claims persist despite attempts by scientists and government officials to debunk them with evidence. They survive all calls to reason. The falsehoods, which have been circulating on X, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms, can resemble the conspiracy theories that plague modern American politics. [Prominent](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/us/politics/hurricane-helene-trump-harris.html) [figures](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/04/elon-musk-helene-aid-buttigieg.html) are pushing them, citing [unrelated, misleading or outdated evidence](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/us/politics/china-disinformation-ai.html). But the risks are often more immediate. Online climate-related conspiracy theories can quickly cause damage offline, [disrupting emergency communications and recovery efforts](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/us/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-misinformation.html). Officials have said this week that the disinformation about Hurricanes Helene and Milton was making relief workers a target, and the American Red Cross [warned](https://www.facebook.com/redcross/posts/931678405657079) that the outlandish claims could prevent survivors from seeking help. “If they’re telling you that the government is responsible for the disaster, that doesn’t help you at all in getting ready for it,” said Jose E. Ramirez-Marquez, an associate professor of systems engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology and a [co-author of a journal article](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212420924006113) this month on how hurricane-related information traveled through X. The increasing frequency and devastating power of major storms, heat waves, wildfires and other weather-related catastrophes tend to elicit an especially strong emotional response, allowing climate denialists, [lobbyists for the oil and gas industry](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/technology/cop28-climate-disinformation.html) and rumormongers to exploit people’s concern and confusion. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fhurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fhurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fhurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fhurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html).

A meteorologist based in Washington, D.C., was accused of helping the government cover up manipulating a hurricane. In Houston, a forecaster was repeatedly told to “do research” into the weather’s supposed nefarious origins. And a meteorologist for a television station in Lansing, Mich., said she had received death threats. “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes,” wrote the forecaster in Michigan, Katie Nickolaou, in a [social media post](https://x.com/weather_katie/status/1843836479103217844). “I can’t believe I just had to type that.” Meteorologists’ role of delivering lifesaving weather forecasts and explaining climate science sometimes makes them targets for harassment, and this kind of abuse has been happening for years, weather experts said. But amid the conspiracy theories and falsehoods that have spiraled online after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, they say the attacks and threats directed at them have reached new heights. “We’re all talking about how much more it’s ramped up,” said Marshall Shepherd, who is the director of the University of Georgia’s Atmospheric Sciences Program and a former president of the American Meteorological Society. There has been “a palpable difference in tone and aggression toward people in my field,” he said. Mr. Shepherd said the scrutiny meteorologists face is sharply amplified during major weather events, and the back-to-back hurricanes, combined with the political climate and second-guessing of weather experts, may have created conditions ripe for abuse. Helene made [landfall](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/us/helene-destruction-florida-north-carolina.html) as a Category 4 storm on Florida’s Gulf Coast in late September, tearing through the Southeast and becoming the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland in nearly two decades. Just two weeks later, Milton rapidly strengthened and [struck](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/10/weather/hurricane-milton-damage-florida.html) Florida as a Category 3 storm, resulting in at least 14 deaths, serious flooding and the destruction of scores of homes. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F14%2Fus%2Fmeteorologists-threats-conspiracy-theories-hurricanes.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F14%2Fus%2Fmeteorologists-threats-conspiracy-theories-hurricanes.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F14%2Fus%2Fmeteorologists-threats-conspiracy-theories-hurricanes.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F14%2Fus%2Fmeteorologists-threats-conspiracy-theories-hurricanes.html).

It has been nearly four years since a parade of judges dismissed wild claims from Donald J. Trump and his associates about hacked election machines and a year and a half since a leading machine company obtained a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News over the debunked conspiracy theories. But Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and his closest allies are again trotting out the theories as part of a late-campaign strategy to assert that this year’s election is rigged — although this time Mr. Trump’s campaign appears to be largely acting behind the scenes. The theories are rampant on social media and widely embraced by activists. They have frequently shown up in [the blitz of lawsuits that Republicans have filed](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/us/politics/trump-2024-presidential-campaign-election-lawsuits.html) in the run-up to the election, including a Georgia lawsuit that a judge dismissed this month, calling the security concerns about voting machines raised in the suit “purely hypothetical.” Mr. Trump’s name was not on the suit, nor was the Republican National Committee’s. But text messages reviewed by The New York Times suggest that the former president’s top aides were behind it. The lawsuit was filed by a county Republican Party only after the state Republican Party in Georgia refused, despite requests from “Trump inner circle/high up in RNC,” Alex B. Kaufman, the state party’s general counsel, wrote in a text to another Republican official last month. “We had immense pressure from above and below to bring this, and said absolutely not,” he added in another message. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F23%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-voting-machine-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F23%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-voting-machine-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F23%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-voting-machine-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F23%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-voting-machine-conspiracy-theories.html).

Nov 6, 2024 5:26 PM Conspiracy theories about missing votes—which are not, in fact, missing—and something being “not right” are being spread widely on X in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory.  A woman wearing a Vote t-shirt prepares mail in ballots to be counted. Municipal Elections in Pennsylvania had a low turn out. Mail in ballots were counted throughout the day.Photograph: Aimee Dilger/AP Photo It took just minutes for the conspiracy theories about the 2024 US presidential election to [flood Elon Musk’s X platform](https://www.wired.com/story/election-fraud-conspiracies-flooding-social-media/) after Donald Trump was [announced as the winner](https://www.wired.com/story/election-2024-donald-trump-win/) in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The number of posts casting doubt on the election results and calling for a recount exploded on Wednesday morning, according to data from research company PeakMetrics. At noon Eastern time, posts on centibillionaire Elon Musk’s X platform peaked at 94,000 posts per hour. Many of the posts received significant amplification on X, with numerous posts reviewed by WIRED receiving more than 1 million views. “How can we have had record turnout and twenty million fewer votes cast nationally?” author John Pavlovitz wrote in a post viewed 5.3 million times. Gordon Crovitz, the CEO of NewsGuard, told WIRED that the term “Trump cheated” was trending on X on Wednesday morning. “There are 92,100 mentions of ‘Trump cheated’ on X since midnight,” Crovitz said. The exact details of the conspiracy theories are still being ironed out by those promoting them, but for the Harris supporters sharing them, her loss was reason enough to indulge in pushing baseless disinformation about the election being stolen. Meanwhile, [the massive pro-Trump election denial movement](https://www.wired.com/story/election-denial-groups-november-2024/) that sprung up in the wake of the 2020 election remained virtually silent on Wednesday morning, in comparison to the [flood of content](https://www.wired.com/story/election-fraud-conspiracies-flooding-social-media/) it shared in the days and weeks leading up to the election. “It doesn't matter whether baseless allegations about voting irregularities come from the right or the left,” says Nina Jankowicz, the former Biden administration disinformation czar who is now CEO of the American Sunlight Project. “The impact on our system of these lies is the same: People will end up trusting the infrastructure of democracy less, setting us up for more disinformation and disengagement. These drop-offs in trust take decades to undo. Take a look at countries in Eastern Europe that have been attempting to rebuild trust in the system since the ‘90s. We should all be wary of these allegations, no matter their source.” The posts calling for a recount used a variety of hashtags including #donotconcedekamala and phrases like “math ain’t mathing.” Many of them contained vague claims that “something is very off.” The one specific claim being made by many of these accounts suggests that there are 20 million “missing votes.” While at publication time the Associated Press’ vote count was indeed 16 million votes lower than that for the 2020 election, the explanation is trivially simple: The entirety of the vote hasn’t been tabulated yet. “Election denial is anti-democratic, whether it comes from the left or the right,” David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, wrote on X. “No, 20 million votes aren’t missing. Votes are still being counted in many states, including millions in CA alone. Number of votes in 2024 very close to 2020, when all are reported “ Posts relating to these conspiracy theories began to gain traction around 2 am Eastern, PeakMetrics data shows, which coincides roughly with the time the election was called for Trump—but even as Americans went to bed, the number of posts did not decline. “By 8 am ET, the number of posts per hour had surged to 31,991,” PeakMetrics wrote in an analysis shared with WIRED. “There was perhaps a surprising lack of overnight drop-off in posts from 2 am to 7 am ET—when typically posts would decline as the US hits sleeping hours. The steady increase in posts on the Kamala recount/missing votes narrative throughout the overnight hours may simply reflect the intensity of this discussion—or may point to inauthentic or automated posting behavior.” Unlike the election denial movement in 2020, which was inspired by Trump’s refusal to accept the results, these conspiracy theories haven’t received any support from the candidate. On Wednesday, Harris urged her supporters to accept the results and assured them her team “will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.” The phenomenon of left-leaning or anti-Trump accounts posting conspiracy theories on social media platforms, referred to as BlueAnon, came to prominence earlier this year in the wake of [the assassination attempt on Trump’s life in July](https://www.wired.com/story/trump-shooting-assassination-conspiracies/). “Any event that seems improbable will always invite conspiracy theories about what ‘really’ happened,” says Mike Rothschild, an author who writes about conspiracy theories and extremists. “In this case, it's a factually incorrect narrative that there are tens of millions of missing votes and that Russian bomb threats sabotaged the Harris campaign. Neither are true—turnout appears to be down, and many states, including California, are still well into counting. And while bomb threats are never acceptable, they're not the reason why the Harris campaign lost every swing state. To write Trump's win off to conspiracy theories is to not live in reality." While the leaders of the election denial movement miraculously did not find any voting-related conspiracies to share in the wake of Trump’s victory—unlike in 2020, when he lost—some of those figures could not help but indulge in some conspiratorial thinking. Dinesh D’Souza, who published a debunked and recalled book about ballot mules rigging the 2020 election, capitalized on the missing votes narrative to prove his claims about the 2020 election were right all along. “Kamala got 60 million votes in 2024,” D’Sousa wrote on X in a post viewed 3 million times. “Does anyone really believe Biden got 80 million in 2020? Where did those 20 million Democratic voters go? The truth is, they never existed. I think we can put the lie about Biden’s 80 million votes to rest once and for all.” Right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson made similar claims in a post viewed more than 17 million times. Meanwhile, in the Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups that were formed to push election conspiracy theories, many of the leaders of the groups were patting themselves on the back for foiling the theft of another election. “I wonder if this is how a soldier feels when he returns home and people thank him for his service,” [Douglas Frank](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-07-31/douglas-frank-election-denial-voting), who left his job as an Ohio high school math teacher to become a minor celebrity in the election denial world, wrote on his Telegram channel. “It's hard to take any credit; he just did his part, and he thinks of his friends that did not return home. And the war is far from over; I think we still have rough days ahead. See you in the battlefield.”

How often do you come in contact with a conspiracy theory? Maybe on occasion, when you flip through TV channels and land on an episode of “Ancient Aliens.” Or perhaps when a friend from high school shares a questionable meme on Facebook. How confident are you in your ability to tell fact from fiction? If you’re a teen, you could be exposed to conspiracy theories and a host of other pieces of misinformation as frequently as every day while scrolling through your social media feeds. That’s according to a [new study](https://newslit.org/news-literacy-in-america/) by the News Literacy Project, which also found that teens struggle with identifying false information online. This comes at a time when media literacy education isn’t available to most students, the report finds, and their ability to distinguish between objective and biased information sources is weak. The findings are based on responses from more than 1,000 teens ages 13 to 18. “News literacy is fundamental to preparing students to become active, critically thinking members of our civic life — which should be one of the primary goals of a public education,” Kim Bowman, News Literacy Project senior research manager and author of the report, said in an email interview. “If we don’t teach young people the skills they need to evaluate information, they will be left at a civic and personal disadvantage their entire lives. News literacy instruction is as important as core subjects like reading and math.” About 80% of teens who use social media say they see content about conspiracy theories in their online feeds, with 20 percent seeing conspiracy content every day. Expand to continue reading ↓ Nadia Tamez-Robledo is a reporter for EdSurge covering a range of beats including early childhood education, K-12, higher education and edtech business. She has previously worked as a reporter on the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, and the Coastal Bend in Corpus Christi [More](https://www.fastcompany.com/user/nadiatamezrobledo)

Nov 14, 2024 11:59 AM The rapid spread of false claims about election fraud has experts worried. While not being promoted by politicians or the media, as similar claims were in 2020, the conspiracy theories are still gaining traction.  Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty On November 9, a TikTok user called Etheria77 posted a nine-minute long video in which she [outlined a conspiracy](https://www.wired.com/story/election-fraud-conspiracies-flooding-social-media/) theory suggesting that [Elon Musk’s Starlink internet satellite](https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-starlink-internet-gigabit-speeds-fcc/) system was used as part of a sophisticated effort to steal the election on behalf of president-elect Donald Trump. “California and other swing states were able to use Starlink in order to tally up and to count voting ballots in their state,” said Etheria77. “The numbers don’t make sense, and the reason I’m going to tell you that is, you had guaranteed states that were going to turn blue and didn’t. Then you had millions of \[votes\] that are missing. This right here is bullshit.” The account was not the first to suggest the [conspiracy theory](https://www.wired.com/story/election-denial-conspiracy-theories-x-left-blueanon/), but the video was one of the main reasons it has taken off in recent days. While TikTok has since removed the video, that has not stopped it from being shared on other social media platforms, including X, Reddit, Threads, Facebook, and Instagram, where it has racked up millions of views. This was just one of dozens of TikTok videos, many of them with hundreds of thousands of views, that shared the conspiracy theory. On other platforms, accounts with large followings also boosted the Starlink conspiracy theory and an assortment of others about Trump’s win. The promotion of baseless election-related conspiracy theories, in what has been dubbed the rise of the [so-called BlueAnon movement](https://www.wired.com/story/trump-shooting-assassination-conspiracies/), mimics in many ways the rise of the Stop the Steal movement in the wake of the 2020 US presidential election. Just like now, those conspiracy theories began as vague claims of election fraud before morphing into very specific and increasingly unhinged narratives about voting machines, military satellites, and all-powerful figures working with the winning campaign. What [began as vague, amorphous claims](https://www.wired.com/story/election-denial-conspiracy-theories-x-left-blueanon/) that “something doesn’t add up” in the hours after president-elect Donald Trump won the election last week have now crystallized into an evolving conspiracy theory involving Musk and Starlink. The major difference, however, is that while [Trump and his allies](https://www.vice.com/en/article/trump-election-conspiracy-theories-taking-over-republican-party/) quickly embraced the conspiracies, so far no Democratic lawmaker or election official has promoted the idea that the 2024 election was stolen. "Similar to the general claims we've seen from the left baselessly speculating that the election was rigged for Trump, the surge in posts about Starlink appears to have been partly driven by relatively obscure accounts that often share little to no identifying information,” says Sam Howard, politics editor with media monitoring group NewsGuard. “I'm not aware of any federal-level Democratic officeholders or officials who have pushed this to date.” Harris and her campaign have never once suggested the election results are anything but what was reported, and in her concession speech last week Harris urged her supporters to accept the outcome. Disinformation researchers are still unsure whether this trend will continue to grow into a significant movement, akin to Stop the Steal, or fizzle out without support from major figures within the Democratic party. But some believe the movement could continue to grow thanks to influencers seeking to gain clout. “There are incentives for people to do this,” says Elise Thomas, a senior open source analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “It feels really good to get all of those likes. If they're getting, you know, 100,000 likes, 500,000 likes for these tweets, they're going to keep doing it, and they're going to come up with new twists on the narrative, and new explanations. That's exactly what we saw happening on the right.” [It took just minutes](https://www.wired.com/story/election-denial-conspiracy-theories-x-left-blueanon/) after Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the election for conspiracy theories about the results to flood social media platforms. Research company PeakMetrics tracked a million posts on November 6 on X related to vague claims like “something doesn’t add up” along with hashtags like “#Recount2024“ and “#DontConcedeKamala.” Eighteen percent of these posts were made by inauthentic accounts, according to an analysis shared with WIRED by researchers from Cyabra, a real-time AI disinformation detection tool. However, when the researchers checked again this week, they found that while the proportion of inauthentic accounts had dropped significantly—6 percent—the conspiracy continued to grow. “Despite this decline, the conspiracy’s momentum persists, driven increasingly by a blend of real influencers and unwitting participants,” the Cyabra researchers wrote. PeakMetrics recorded a 2,200 percent rise in the number of posts mentioning Starlink and the election or voting between Saturday and Sunday last, with posts about the Starlink conspiracy theory surpassing posts using the #Recount2024 hashtag on X on Monday. A NewsGuard analysis shared with WIRED found there were 281,644 mentions of Starlink on X on November 10, compared to a daily average of 40,100 mentions a day from November 5 to November 9. The conspiracy theory took hold after it was discovered that Starlink was used at some polling locations to improve connectivity—not for voting machines, but for voter check-in. The false claims have been [repeatedly](https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36MC7PJ) [debunked](https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-election-starlink-musk-steal-trump-38757341656d4f44243076d6356cb68b) [by fact-checking](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/11/13/fact-check-was-elon-musks-starlink-used-to-rig-the-us-election) [organizations](https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/was-starlink-used-election-count-votes-fraud/), and election officials have reiterated that voting machines are not connected to the internet. Starlink did not respond to a request for comment. This conspiracy theory has continued to spread, and it's not limited to X: Discussion threads on Reddit, posts on Instagram and Threads, and dozens of Facebook posts all push the narrative that Musk colluded with Trump to use his Starlink satellites to steal the election. One of the most active platforms for these conspiracy theories is TikTok. WIRED has reviewed dozens of videos posted on the platform by users either repeating the claim about Musk and Starlink or adding new twists to the conspiracy theory. X, Meta, Reddit, and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment. One of the most popular new aspects of the theory relates to the fact that Starlink satellites were [observed burning up over the US last weekend,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZGOPqsi34) which those pushing the conspiracy theory claim is evidence of Musk attempting to cover his tracks. The [reality](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/11/11/spacex-starlink-satellite-breaking-up-fireball-meteor-video/76193700007/) is that Starlink satellites are designed to burn up on reentry at the end of their lifespan. The conspiracy theory has eerily similar aspects to the so-called Italygate conspiracy [pushed by the Trump campaign](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/15/pure-insanity-heres-perhaps-craziest-election-fraud-conspiracy-trump-team-pushed/) after the 2020 election, which suggested an Italian military satellite was used to flip votes from Trump to President Joe Biden. “It's concerning to see it solidifying and crystallizing into specific narratives, and then to see stuff being added on—this is what we saw last time as well,” says Thomas. “You see this sort of collective storytelling that happens within these communities where the people who are trying to gain clout online by promoting a new version of a conspiracy theory, they all have to add their little bits to it so that they can get their engagement.” Other conspiracy theorists claimed Trump spoke about “a little secret” he made onstage that he had with Musk, referencing a comment he made during his Madison Square Garden rally last month. In fact, the comment was [directed at House speaker Mike Johnson](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/28/trump-mike-johnson-little-secret-election). Some left-leaning accounts have also pointed to podcaster [Joe Rogan’s comments this week](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfSjQyFd7aU&t=1s) that Musk had developed a bespoke app to give him early access to election results. “Apparently Elon created an app and he knew who won the election four hours before the results,” Rogan said. “So as the results are coming in, four hours before they called it, Dana White told me Elon said, ‘I’m leaving. It’s over. Donald won.’” It’s unclear how this app worked or what data it used. Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that oversees the US elections, said in [a November 6 statement](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/statement-cisa-director-easterly-security-2024-elections) that there was “no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.” While some right-wing figures are continuing to push election conspiracy theories, the vast majority have fallen silent in the wake of Trump’s win, abandoning overnight four years worth of nonstop posting and shouting about election fraud. And while the left-wing election conspiracies are nowhere near the scale that the Stop the Steal movement was just weeks ago, some experts are still concerned. “I've seen some comparisons to Stop the Steal and some of these other right-wing conspiracy election theories, and it is smaller than those, as they were at the end of the Trump presidency,” says Thomas. “But I think the significant difference there is that they came after months, if not years, of deliberate agitation and cultivation by a variety of actors. So, for me, to see these left-wing election fraud conspiracy theories getting pretty significant traction quickly, I think, personally, is quite concerning.”