Cool heads needed as political fringe dwellers spread disinformation after Trump shooting

Partisans on the left and the right are weaponizing the attack and spreading lies faster than journalists can offer facts to counter them

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Disinformation researcher Amanda Rogers has described the polarized, unhinged, conspiracy-driven noise in social media responses to the shooting of Donald Trump as a self-sustaining spiral of shit".

Rogers, a fellow at the progressive thinktank Century Foundation, has seen this before. But the scale is new and troubling, she said. Conversation on social media - and the mainstream media - is focused on the motivations of the shooter and the impact on the election, she said. Bad actors want to turn a moment like this into a broader call for violence. And they will spread lies to get there, she said.