Trump shooting shows conspiracy theories not confined to right wing

Hashtags such as #staged and #fakeassassination viewed millions of times as sceptics question mainstream narrative

Soon after a bullet grazed Donald Trump's ear, 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, one of the arch-proponents of the argument that mainstream media and the establishment in general cannot be trusted.