From Politico,
After Charlie Kirk’s killing, false claims flourish online — with help from US adversaries.
What kind of false claims? Politico runs through four examples I’d never heard of. The fifth example was from China,
In addition, NewsGuard identified incidents of foreign disinformation on social platform X, where pro-China accounts falsely claimed that the suspected shooter donated to President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2020.
But it’s the claim around Tyler Robinson as a pro-Trump MAGA right-winger who believed that Charlie Kirk was, somehow, a leftist, that continues to circulate in media/Democratic circles. The Politico piece doesn’t indicate that the origin of this falsehood, other than the false report of a Trump donation, came from overseas.
John reports that the “Robinson is MAGA” falsehood is what apparently got Jimmy Kimmel fired from ABC.
The state chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party (DFL), Richard Carlbom continues to peddle this lie on Twitter (X). He wrote last week,
Charlie Kirk should be alive today. Political violence must not be tolerated.
The shooter didn’t think Kirk was right-wing enough. The reference to groyper is linked to a rival right-wing ideologue.
The Carlbom post links to a Reuters claim that has since been withdrawn. But Carlbom’s post is still up and has accumulated more than 162,500 views, yet only 35 likes.
The post has accumulated 720 replies, producing the most lop-sided ratio I have ever encountered on social media.
Unlike Politico, I am far more concerned about homegrown disinformation.
