Media
Chaos on social media platforms after Trump shooting is a mess of their own making
CNN
—
The social media industry’s tepid response this week to the conspiracy theories floating wildly on their platforms about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was part of a purposeful shift away from actively policing online speech – even in the face of potentially dangerous rhetoric.
The reaction could not be more different from 2021, in wake of the country’s last brush with political violence. That does not bode well for the coming election – or its aftermath.
Three years ago, major online platforms including Meta, Twitter and YouTube took swift action to keep the attack on America’s democracy on January 6 from spiraling online – suspending thousands of accounts that had promoted election lies, extending a pause on political advertising and removing posts that praised the US Capitol attack, among other moves.
In stark contrast, however, social media platforms over the past few days have been overrun by false claims about the attempt on Trump’s life, ranging from baseless left-wing speculation that the incident had been “staged” for Trump’s own political benefit to right-wing conspiracy theories falsely suggesting “deep state” government agents or perhaps President Joe Biden himself had somehow orchestrated the attack.
The incident was not staged. The US Secret Service has described it as an assassination attempt and the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged it as a security failure. Investigators are still searching for the shooter’s motive. And Biden condemned political violence following the attack, pledging an independent investigation into the security lapse as well.
Big Tech CEOs have universally echoed Biden’s remarks. But amid the torrent of conspiracy theorizing, the social media platforms have been largely silent about their own role in how the event has played out online, reflecting a sharp departure from their previous hands-on approach to containing the spread of falsehoods that, left unchecked, could risk fueling further conflict.
None of the country’s largest social media platforms responded to repeated questions from CNN over multiple days this week about what actions they have taken in response to misinformation and conspiracy theories circulating about the Trump rally shooting. Meta, Google, TikTok and X did not respond. Only Snapchat issued a statement saying it is designed “differently from traditional social media” in that it doesn’t offer a curated news feed “where users can broadcast false information.”
The steadfast silence from tech platforms underscores how significantly industry giants have shifted in the past three years to embrace a more hands-off approach — in their latest attempt to juggle, in real time, competing values of free expression, online safety and political neutrality. And what the public experienced on social media in the moments after the attack on Trump is a sign of what’s to come, said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a social media watchdog group that advocates for tighter regulation of the platforms.
“This should be a hint,” Ahmed said, “that the months ahead are going to be just as unedifying, as stultifyingly stupid and as confusing as the last few days have been on social media.”
How did we get here?
A dizzying array of factors have combined to create today’s more toxic information environment.
Most visibly, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, now known as X, has transformed what was once the premier social media destination for breaking news into a messier, less trustworthy platform.
Musk has made multiple interlocking decisions around account verification, payments to creators, and whom to allow on the platform that have degraded users’ ability to trust each other and what they see there, misinformation researchers have long said. And he has erected barriers to independent accountability by forcing researchers to pay astronomical fees for access to the platform’s data.
Users on X are now being financially rewarded for posting the most inflammatory, engaging content regardless of its accuracy or truthfulness. Although Musk has touted X’s crowdbased fact-checking feature, Community Notes, as a bulwark against misinformation, it has been widely criticized as slow and ineffective. On Tuesday, CCDH published new research finding that of 100 top-performing conspiracy theory posts on X about Trump’s shooting, only five contained a Community Note refuting a false claim. The posts collectively garnered more than 215 million views on X, according to CCDH.
Soon after Musk bought the platform, he laid off roughly 80% of Twitter’s pre-acquisition headcount. The deep cuts affected the company’s trust and safety team responsible for safeguarding the platform and, in a separate move, Musk eliminated Twitter’s trust and safety council of outside experts.
But X wasn’t alone in reducing investments in trust and safety. Industrywide, companies cited tough macroeconomic conditions to justify sweeping layoffs that in some cases have hit trust and safety teams. In 2019, Snapchat had 763 employees working on trust and safety, a number that grew to more than 3,000 by 2021, the company told Congress this year. But by 2023, that figure had fallen 27% to 2,226. Meta and TikTok told lawmakers they each employ roughly 40,000 safety employees but did not disclose how that number has changed over time.
Social media companies retreated in other ways, too, from YouTube deciding to once again allow lies about the 2020 election on its platform to Meta deciding to stop amplifying news, politics and social issues in its curated feeds altogether.
“Meta decided that it can’t profitably deliver civic content,” said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and the co-director of Cybersecurity for Democracy, a research group focused on digital misinformation. “It can’t make a safe social media product that does politics and civic stuff, and so it just got out of that business.”
Baybars Orsek, managing director of the fact-checking organization Logically Facts, said these and other changes by social media platforms have made working with them in the last few years more challenging.
“It is concerning to see that some platforms have chosen to distance themselves from political discourse rather than enforce transparent and scalable policies to protect free speech while maintaining a safe information environment,” Orsek told CNN.
It isn’t just the companies’ own business decisions driving the shift. Since the 2020 election, researchers who study digital platforms have increasingly reported being harassed and intimidated, in some cases by US lawmakers who have baselessly alleged they are part of a government-led pressure campaign to silence right-wing speech on social media.
For years, some conservatives have said, the US government in regular meetings and emails with social media companies has pressured platforms to remove Covid-19 and election misinformation in violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights. Those claims reached a climax this year at the Supreme Court, where, in a closely watched ruling, a 6-3 majority declined to say that government efforts to persuade platforms to remove posts is unconstitutional.
The decision effectively means the US government can continue to flag misinformation threats to social media companies in the runup to the 2024 election. But it is still up to the companies to decide what to do with that information. And the Trump rally shooting now raises fresh questions about their willingness to act on it, especially against the backdrop of a sustained effort by right-wing social media critics to discredit trust and safety work and misinformation research.
How this all played out on Saturday
The combination of all these factors led to ripe conditions for a misinformation maelstrom surrounding the Trump assassination attempt.
The incident touched off an intense demand for information. Mainstream media outlets, taking care to report only credible answers, were initially slower to report what was happening than the breakneck pace of social media speculation. That led to what researchers call an information void: a gap between what is known and what audiences want to know.
Meta’s decision not to amplify news and politics in curated feeds – part of a broader industry retrenchment on trust and safety driven by internal business pressures and external cultural ones – may have helped prevent some people from going down algorithmically recommended rabbit holes, at least on company-owned platforms.
But in the minutes after the shooting, some Threads users complained that mentions of the incident could not immediately be found on the site, in direct contrast to X – where, thanks in part to Musk’s prior decisions – conspiratorial thinking was already flowing fast and free.
Meta’s pullback from promoting news content likely contributed to the information void, Edelson said, as it failed to sufficiently elevate authoritative reporting and likely drove users into the arms of conspiracy theorists on other platforms.
The decision highlights the difficult tradeoffs of managing a fast-moving information ecosystem, said Orsek.
“The lack of stringent content moderation on X has led to a proliferation of misinformation, whereas Meta’s more conservative strategy has resulted in less immediate information [on its platforms], both verified and unverified,” Orsek said.
(The Verge reported Saturday that Meta did appear to be surfacing news outlets’ reporting about the shooting in Facebook search results, but that it inconsistently showed conspiracy-related content at the top of its trending topic on Threads for the incident.)
Meanwhile, Edelson added, TikTok also emerged as a key spreader of misinformation due to the way its recommendation algorithm surfaced videos it believed would resonate with users, rather than primarily authoritative information.
For other social media users, the episode highlighted how X remains the platform of choice for following big breaking news events online, even if the quality of the information is degraded. And the near-instant calcification of pro-Trump and anti-Trump false narratives surrounding the shooting shows how Americans are primed to look at the same event through completely different lenses, irrespective of the underlying facts.
The eagerness with which people on the right and, increasingly, on the left have embraced misleading claims linked to the shooting is a worrying sign for civil discourse and democracy, some researchers say.
That includes Alicia Wanless, director of the Information Environment Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has been researching how people create their own realities from the information they consume and the technology they use.
“I’ve been finding a pattern that after new technologies change how humans can produce and share information,” Wanless said, it leads to clashes of different realities in which supporters of various sides and ideologies try to do ever more to convince audiences that their narrative is the truth.
Historically, if the tension between realities can’t be resolved, Wanless warned, it often leads to violence.
“All my case studies led up to conflict,” she said.
Former President Donald Trump is on the brink of a significant financial decision that could have far-reaching implications for both his personal wealth and the future of his fledgling social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). As the lockup period on his shares in TMTG, which owns Truth Social, nears its end, Trump could soon be free to sell his substantial stake in the company. However, the potential payday, which makes up a large portion of his net worth, comes with considerable risks for Trump and his supporters.
Trump’s stake in TMTG comprises nearly 59% of the company, amounting to 114,750,000 shares. As of now, this holding is valued at approximately $2.6 billion. These shares are currently under a lockup agreement, a common feature of initial public offerings (IPOs), designed to prevent company insiders from immediately selling their shares and potentially destabilizing the stock. The lockup, which began after TMTG’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), is set to expire on September 25, though it could end earlier if certain conditions are met.
Should Trump decide to sell his shares after the lockup expires, the market could respond in unpredictable ways. The sale of a substantial number of shares by a major stakeholder like Trump could flood the market, potentially driving down the stock price. Daniel Bradley, a finance professor at the University of South Florida, suggests that the market might react negatively to such a large sale, particularly if there aren’t enough buyers to absorb the supply. This could lead to a sharp decline in the stock’s value, impacting both Trump’s personal wealth and the company’s market standing.
Moreover, Trump’s involvement in Truth Social has been a key driver of investor interest. The platform, marketed as a free speech alternative to mainstream social media, has attracted a loyal user base largely due to Trump’s presence. If Trump were to sell his stake, it might signal a lack of confidence in the company, potentially shaking investor confidence and further depressing the stock price.
Trump’s decision is also influenced by his ongoing legal battles, which have already cost him over $100 million in legal fees. Selling his shares could provide a significant financial boost, helping him cover these mounting expenses. However, this move could also have political ramifications, especially as he continues his bid for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race.
Trump Media’s success is closely tied to Trump’s political fortunes. The company’s stock has shown volatility in response to developments in the presidential race, with Trump’s chances of winning having a direct impact on the stock’s value. If Trump sells his stake, it could be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his own political future, potentially undermining both his campaign and the company’s prospects.
Truth Social, the flagship product of TMTG, has faced challenges in generating traffic and advertising revenue, especially compared to established social media giants like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. Despite this, the company’s valuation has remained high, fueled by investor speculation on Trump’s political future. If Trump remains in the race and manages to secure the presidency, the value of his shares could increase. Conversely, any missteps on the campaign trail could have the opposite effect, further destabilizing the stock.
As the lockup period comes to an end, Trump faces a critical decision that could shape the future of both his personal finances and Truth Social. Whether he chooses to hold onto his shares or cash out, the outcome will likely have significant consequences for the company, its investors, and Trump’s political aspirations.
Cochise County, AZ — Law enforcement officials in Arizona have apprehended Ronald Lee Syvrud, a 66-year-old resident of Cochise County, after a manhunt was launched following alleged death threats he made against former President Donald Trump. The threats reportedly surfaced in social media posts over the past two weeks, as Trump visited the US-Mexico border in Cochise County on Thursday.
Syvrud, who hails from Benson, Arizona, located about 50 miles southeast of Tucson, was captured by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon. The Sheriff’s Office confirmed his arrest, stating, “This subject has been taken into custody without incident.”
In addition to the alleged threats against Trump, Syvrud is wanted for multiple offences, including failure to register as a sex offender. He also faces several warrants in both Wisconsin and Arizona, including charges for driving under the influence and a felony hit-and-run.
The timing of the arrest coincided with Trump’s visit to Cochise County, where he toured the US-Mexico border. During his visit, Trump addressed the ongoing border issues and criticized his political rival, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, for what he described as lax immigration policies. When asked by reporters about the ongoing manhunt for Syvrud, Trump responded, “No, I have not heard that, but I am not that surprised and the reason is because I want to do things that are very bad for the bad guys.”
This incident marks the latest in a series of threats against political figures during the current election cycle. Just earlier this month, a 66-year-old Virginia man was arrested on suspicion of making death threats against Vice President Kamala Harris and other public officials.
Media
Trump Media & Technology Group Faces Declining Stock Amid Financial Struggles and Increased Competition
Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock has taken a significant hit, dropping more than 11% this week following a disappointing earnings report and the return of former U.S. President Donald Trump to the rival social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. This decline is part of a broader downward trend for the parent company of Truth Social, with the stock plummeting nearly 43% since mid-July. Despite the sharp decline, some investors remain unfazed, expressing continued optimism for the company’s financial future or standing by their investment as a show of political support for Trump.
One such investor, Todd Schlanger, an interior designer from West Palm Beach, explained his commitment to the stock, stating, “I’m a Republican, so I supported him. When I found out about the stock, I got involved because I support the company and believe in free speech.” Schlanger, who owns around 1,000 shares, is a regular user of Truth Social and is excited about the company’s future, particularly its plans to expand its streaming services. He believes Truth Social has the potential to be as strong as Facebook or X, despite the stock’s recent struggles.
However, Truth Social’s stock performance is deeply tied to Trump’s political influence and the company’s ability to generate sustainable revenue, which has proven challenging. An earnings report released last Friday showed the company lost over $16 million in the three-month period ending in June. Revenue dropped by 30%, down to approximately $836,000 compared to $1.2 million during the same period last year.
In response to the earnings report, Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes emphasized the company’s strong cash position, highlighting $344 million in cash reserves and no debt. He also reiterated the company’s commitment to free speech, stating, “From the beginning, it was our intention to make Truth Social an impenetrable beachhead of free speech, and by taking extraordinary steps to minimize our reliance on Big Tech, that is exactly what we are doing.”
Despite these assurances, investors reacted negatively to the quarterly report, leading to a steep drop in stock price. The situation was further complicated by Trump’s return to X, where he posted for the first time in a year. Trump’s exclusivity agreement with Trump Media & Technology Group mandates that he posts personal content first on Truth Social. However, he is allowed to make politically related posts on other social media platforms, which he did earlier this week, potentially drawing users away from Truth Social.
For investors like Teri Lynn Roberson, who purchased shares near the company’s peak after it went public in March, the decline in stock value has been disheartening. However, Roberson remains unbothered by the poor performance, saying her investment was more about supporting Trump than making money. “I’m way at a loss, but I am OK with that. I am just watching it for fun,” Roberson said, adding that she sees Trump’s return to X as a positive move that could expand his reach beyond Truth Social’s “echo chamber.”
The stock’s performance holds significant financial implications for Trump himself, as he owns a 65% stake in Trump Media & Technology Group. According to Fortune, this stake represents a substantial portion of his net worth, which could be vulnerable if the company continues to struggle financially.
Analysts have described Truth Social as a “meme stock,” similar to companies like GameStop and AMC that saw their stock prices driven by ideological investments rather than business fundamentals. Tyler Richey, an analyst at Sevens Report Research, noted that the stock has ebbed and flowed based on sentiment toward Trump. He pointed out that the recent decline coincided with the rise of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, which may have dampened perceptions of Trump’s 2024 election prospects.
Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida, offered a grim long-term outlook for Truth Social, suggesting that the stock would likely remain volatile, but with an overall downward trend. “What’s lacking for the true believer in the company story is, ‘OK, where is the business strategy that will be generating revenue?'” Ritter said, highlighting the company’s struggle to produce a sustainable business model.
Still, for some investors, like Michael Rogers, a masonry company owner in North Carolina, their support for Trump Media & Technology Group is unwavering. Rogers, who owns over 10,000 shares, said he invested in the company both as a show of support for Trump and because of his belief in the company’s financial future. Despite concerns about the company’s revenue challenges, Rogers expressed confidence in the business, stating, “I’m in it for the long haul.”
Not all investors are as confident. Mitchell Standley, who made a significant return on his investment earlier this year by capitalizing on the hype surrounding Trump Media’s planned merger with Digital World Acquisition Corporation, has since moved on. “It was basically just a pump and dump,” Standley told ABC News. “I knew that once they merged, all of his supporters were going to dump a bunch of money into it and buy it up.” Now, Standley is staying away from the company, citing the lack of business fundamentals as the reason for his exit.
Truth Social’s future remains uncertain as it continues to struggle with financial losses and faces stiff competition from established social media platforms. While its user base and investor sentiment are bolstered by Trump’s political following, the company’s long-term viability will depend on its ability to create a sustainable revenue stream and maintain relevance in a crowded digital landscape.
As the company seeks to stabilize, the question remains whether its appeal to Trump’s supporters can translate into financial success or whether it will remain a volatile stock driven more by ideology than business fundamentals.
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