University of Kwazulu-Natal

Charlie Kirk Killing How Conspiracies And Misinformation Are Flooding

Bonisiwe Shabane
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charlie kirk killing how conspiracies and misinformation are flooding

Conspiracy theories about the death of Charlie Kirk have inundated X, TikTok, and Instagram in recent days. And while crackpot ideas have always followed major world events, there’s no denying that they’re much more common and widespread in the age of social media. Kirk, a 31-year-old right-wing influencer, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The graphic killing was captured on video from several angles since many people in the audience were filming his discussion, quickly uploading footage in the immediate aftermath. The suspect in the killing, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, turned himself in to authorities late Thursday night local time, according to CNN.

But the internet has been flooded with conspiracy theories about Kirk’s death, both before and after Robinson’s arrest. FBI Director Kash Patel appeared on Fox & Friends on Monday morning, where he made various claims about the shooting that haven’t been formally presented to a court yet, much less confirmed. But if the broader picture that’s emerging is true—that one man acted alone by firing a rifle from a rooftop—many of the conspiracy theories that have popped up are absolutely ridiculous. Below, we’ve got some of the most common categories of conspiracy theories circulating on social media right now. Social media has been awash in false claims, misinformation and conspiracies following the death of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday. Some posts have garnered tens of millions of views, many claiming the incident was a hoax or that it was staged.

Conspiracy sites like Infowars have also picked up on some of the narratives. CBC's visual investigation unit took a look at some of the most popular claims to separate fact from fiction using open, independently-verifiable sources of information. Some online commentators have have pointed out an apparently suspicious aspect of the incident: a black mark on Kirk's right upper chest and shoulder area, which appears to detach and disappear during the shooting. Users have raised doubts about the shooting as a whole or claimed that it was a pre-placed squib, or blood pack, a Hollywood method for faking a gunshot wound. In countless previous videos of events similar to the one held at UVU, Kirk has worn what appears to be an identical magnetic microphone clip or similar device in the same area on his... In short, the black "mark" on Kirk's shirt is not an anomaly, but a regular feature of his public appearances.

This now-deleted post on X, which had received close to 19 million views, raised questions as to why a private jet, flying under the designation N888KG, left Utah's Provo Airport shortly after the shooting. It also notes that the flight's transponder signal was lost roughly 30 minutes later, stating it "illegally turns off ADS-B radar." ADS-B radar refers to flight tracking technology that broadcasts plane positions, viewable via... The Charlie Kirk assassination follows a script that we have all become familiar with. After his killing, the confusion began almost instantaneously — some claimed they had identified the shooter, others purported that a transwoman was behind the killing. Many suggested the killer was liberal; others floated the prospect that it was a targeted killing by a foreign actor. The death of Charlie Kirk, the famous right-wing activist and close aide of US President Donald Trump, has spawned a barrage of deliberate falsehoods, honest mistakes and a flood of conspiracies.

As Vox wrote in one report, “Social media is the worst place to be right now.” As authorities try to sift fact from fiction and continue their manhunt for the killer, here’s a look at just some of the conspiracies and misinformation that spread in the aftermath of Kirk’s death. Shortly after Kirk was killed, many theories abound about the shooting, with people trying to make sense of the tragedy. One of the theories that has garnered a lot of attention is that Kirk’s bodyguards made hand signals right before he was shot, indicating they might have been in on the killing. Footage from Wednesday’s event at Utah Valley University, which drew about 3,000 people, shows members of Kirk’s small private security team shifting their positions behind him as he spoke. One appears to adjust his cap while holding a phone, while another moves his arms and scans the crowd.

Fake photos. False claims. Wild conspiracy theories. The public murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah, captured in gruesome footage that spread around the world, has set off an avalanche of misinformation. Bogus assertions have been spread on social media by Americans across the political divide and by foreign adversaries. Prominent members of President Donald Trump’s administration, meanwhile, have made conspiratorial statements that can’t currently be called false – the investigation into the killing continues, and more information might well emerge – but that...

Here is a look at some of the inaccurate or unsupported claims. Soon after a Utah man named Tyler Robinson was named as the suspect in the killing, some social media users on the political left began claiming he was a donor to Trump. They cited federal election records showing that a Utah man named Tyler Robinson had contributed to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. A flood of false and misleading claims filled social media in the two days it took officials to arrest and publicly identify 22-year-old Tyler Robinson as the suspect in Wednesday’s assassination of conservative activist... Law enforcement monitors the scene at Utah Valley University after Turning Point USA CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed , Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, in Orem, Utah.

(AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Gov. Spencer Cox speaks at a press conference at Utah Valley University after Charlie Kirk, CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed during a visit at the university in Orem, Utah,... 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) ▶ Follow live updates on President Donald Trump and his administration

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia moved to amplify online conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s killing just hours after it happened, seeding social media with the frightening claim that America is slipping into civil war. Within hours of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, edited videos began to spread online. Some focused on the moment Kirk was shot — zooming in on the obviously fatal wound to make the strange claim that he hadn’t been killed at all: that the video was a fake,... In videos that each racked up hundreds of thousands of views, one Illinois creator pointed to photos of the Turning Point USA founder making an “OK” sign with his hands: these symbols, they said,... Kirk is, of course, senselessly and indisputably dead. That fact alone was enough to shatter reality, even for people outside the gravitational pull of internet conspiracy culture.

Kirk is, of course, senselessly and indisputably dead. That fact alone was enough to shatter reality. At 31, Kirk was arguably the most popular and influential figure in right-wing politics outside of Trump — for whom he acted as a strategist, the guy who brought young people into the MAGA... To the religious right, he was a hero. To many on the left, an avatar of racism, transphobia and misogyny. And to tens of thousands of young people, especially men, who packed his rallies and the millions more who watched his clips online, Kirk was someone who could talk to anyone, win any argument...

He connected MAHA and MAGA and sealed Trump’s selection of JD Vance for vice president. Kirk was, as his podcast intro declared, “the voice of a generation” and, many believed, a future president. The shooting of Charlie Kirk unleashed a wave of conspiracy theories and misinformation, much of it coming from chatbots. On Thursday, the day after Kirk died, for example, the X account of AI chatbot Perplexity was confidently proclaiming that Kirk was still alive. The post has since been removed. But Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok, meanwhile, was under a similar misapprehension.

"The video is a meme edit—Charlie Kirk is debating, and effects make it look like he's 'shot' mid-sentence for comedic effect," it claimed. "No actual harm; he's fine and active as ever." This isn't the first time chatbots have delivered confidently false information. "During the Los Angeles protests and Israel-Hamas war, users similarly turned to chatbots for answers and were served inaccurate information," NewsGuard researchers said. "Despite repeated examples of these tools confidently repeating falsehoods, as documented in NewsGuard’s Monthly AI False Claims Monitor, many continue to treat AI systems as reliable sources in moments of crisis and uncertainty." Reporting credits: Seana Davis, Carmel Jaeslin, Shruthi Ramachandran, Neha Mustafi, Anagha TR, Reuters Fact Check Editing by Rod Nickel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way. Charlie Kirk has been associated with statements various outlets and fact-checkers have flagged as misleading, out-of-context, or aligning with conspiratorial themes; some of his remarks were accurately reported while others were distorted by circulation... Recent fact-checking and news pieces from September 2025 show a mix: reporting that confirms particular provocative claims by Kirk, reporting that warns about misattribution or context loss, and reporting highlighting conspiracy-adjacent rhetoric that critics... This analysis maps the key claims, evidence, and competing interpretations across those reports.

1. Why the controversy snowballed: split between quote and context Coverage in September 2025 documents that some statements attributed to Kirk are verbatim, while other items have been taken out of context or misrepresented, fueling disagreement over whether he “spread misinformation” or was merely... FactCheck.org found Kirk did call the Civil Rights Act a “huge mistake” but framed that as a critique tied to later administrative structures like DEI bureaucracies rather than a literal denunciation of civil rights... Other outlets flagged social-media-driven misattributions after Kirk’s murder that amplified false claims about who said what and when, underscoring how emotional events magnify errors [3]. 2.

Where fact-checkers found accurate, problematic claims

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Conspiracy theories about the death of Charlie Kirk have inundated X, TikTok, and Instagram in recent days. And while crackpot ideas have always followed major world events, there’s no denying that they’re much more common and widespread in the age of social media. Kirk, a 31-year-old right-wing influencer, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The gr...

But The Internet Has Been Flooded With Conspiracy Theories About

But the internet has been flooded with conspiracy theories about Kirk’s death, both before and after Robinson’s arrest. FBI Director Kash Patel appeared on Fox & Friends on Monday morning, where he made various claims about the shooting that haven’t been formally presented to a court yet, much less confirmed. But if the broader picture that’s emerging is true—that one man acted alone by firing a r...

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Conspiracy sites like Infowars have also picked up on some of the narratives. CBC's visual investigation unit took a look at some of the most popular claims to separate fact from fiction using open, independently-verifiable sources of information. Some online commentators have have pointed out an apparently suspicious aspect of the incident: a black mark on Kirk's right upper chest and shoulder ar...

This Now-deleted Post On X, Which Had Received Close To

This now-deleted post on X, which had received close to 19 million views, raised questions as to why a private jet, flying under the designation N888KG, left Utah's Provo Airport shortly after the shooting. It also notes that the flight's transponder signal was lost roughly 30 minutes later, stating it "illegally turns off ADS-B radar." ADS-B radar refers to flight tracking technology that broadca...

As Vox Wrote In One Report, “Social Media Is The

As Vox wrote in one report, “Social media is the worst place to be right now.” As authorities try to sift fact from fiction and continue their manhunt for the killer, here’s a look at just some of the conspiracies and misinformation that spread in the aftermath of Kirk’s death. Shortly after Kirk was killed, many theories abound about the shooting, with people trying to make sense of the tragedy. ...