What do you mean an Italian youtuber was accused of being Trump's assassin?

Before the name of the man who recently shot Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania became known, numerous false stories about the identity of the shooter had started circulating on social networks. One of the most widely shared worldwide pointed the finger at Italian YouTuber Marco Violi. Posts accusing him began appearing minutes after the attack: on X, a photo of him started circulating accompanied by text labeling him as “a known Antifa extremist” and calling him “the Trump shooter”. Violi stated on Instagram that the first to post his photo on X were two Italian accounts, LogikSEO and Moussolinho. “It was supposed to be an ironic tweet limited to my circle of followers, I didn’t expect accounts with millions of followers to fall for such a prank,” later said the person behind the profile Moussolinho. “I deleted the tweet once I realized what was happening, but by then Pandora's box had been opened.” The spreading of his photo, in all likelihood, was also encouraged by a post from Wall Street Silver, an X account followed by over a million users and occasionally interacted with by Elon Musk. Shared thousands of times, Violi's photo was presumably seen by millions of people—on X, Telegram, and Gab, a platform highly favored by far-right militants.

How Marco Violi's case unfolded

The reach of this fake news was so extensive that it forced some of the most important international newspapers and news agencies to intervene with dedicated articles to debunk it. If it had only circulated in Italy, the news probably would have seemed implausible from the start, but in a country where Violi is virtually unknown, it ended up going viral. For this reason, Violi himself—who besides covering sports on YouTube runs a news website dedicated to AS Roma—felt compelled to officially clarify that he was not involved in the Trump shooting. He then added that he was awakened by numerous notifications on Instagram and X, with many users asking him why he shot Trump. “The news circulating about me is completely unfounded and organized by a group of haters who have been ruining my life since 2018,” he stated. Indeed, it's not the first time fake news has been packaged using Violi's face and name on the internet: as early as 2021, the YouTuber was fingered on social networks as responsible for an attack in Norway. Violi said he had already initiated legal proceedings regarding this matter, and this time he also stated he would seek legal counsel. The YouTuber's sister described the case as “a hurricane,” reporting that it had caused him significant stress.

Conspiracy theories about the Trump shooting

Violi's case is not the only false news about the Trump shooting that has gained traction. Several posts, including some written by American politicians, claimed that the attack was ordered directly by the President of the United States. Georgia Republican Congressman Mike Collins wrote on X that Biden should be charged with “inciting an assasination”. Florida Republican Congressman Greg Steube, referring to Trump, wrote that first the Democrats “they tried to jail him and now they’ve tried to kill him”. However, the spread of these theories has not only involved Trump supporters but even his detractors. In this case, the theory that gained the most resonance is that the shooting was part of an operation organized by Trump himself, aimed at boosting support ahead of the November elections. In the hours following the attack, the hashtag "staged" even trended on X. The truth, however, is that to date very little is known about the real attacker of Trump, Thomas Crooks—killed by security snipers immediately after firing. At the moment, it seems difficult, if not impossible, to understand why Crooks would have wanted to target Trump: according to investigations, he left no messages, letters of claim, or other material explaining his motive, neither on his smartphone nor online.