Foreign disinformation about Charlie Kirk's killing seeks to widen US
divisions
[September 17, 2025]
By DAVID KLEPPER
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.
Chinese and pro-Iranian groups also spread disinformation about the
shooting, with those loyal to Iran's interests backing antisemitic
conspiracy theories while bots linked to Beijing claimed that Kirk's
death shows that the United States is violent, polarized and
dysfunctional.
America's adversaries have long used fake social media accounts, online
bots and disinformation to depict the U.S. as a dangerous country beset
with extremism and gun violence. Kirk’s killing has provided another
opportunity for those overseas eager to shape public understanding while
inflaming political polarization.
“Charlie Kirk’s Death and the Coming Civil War,” tweeted Russian
ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, whose influence earned him the moniker
“ Putin's brain," referring to Russia's president. Pro-Russian bots
blamed Democrats and predicted more violence. Russian state media
published English-language articles with headlines claiming a conspiracy
orchestrated by shadowy forces: “Was Charlie Kirk's Killer a Pro?”
Foreign disinformation makes up a tiny fraction of the overall online
discussion about Kirk’s death, but it could undermine any efforts to
heal political divisions or even spur further violence.
“We've seen multiple Russian campaigns attempting to exploit" Kirk's
killing, said Joseph Bodnar, senior research manager at the Institute
for Strategic Dialogue. In many cases, the campaigns aren't adding new
claims but are recycling ones that emerged from American users. “They're
picking up domestic actors and amplifying them.”
Adversaries tailor disinformation
In each case, those spreading the disinformation have tailored it for
their own ends. Chinese propaganda has focused on the violent nature of
Kirk's death, painting the U.S. as a nation of violent gun owners and
political extremists.
Russian voices have tried to tie Kirk's death to U.S. support for
Ukraine, even spreading a conspiracy theory that the Ukrainian
government killed Kirk because of his criticism of that aid.
Pro-Iranian groups took a different tack, claiming Israel was behind
Kirk's death and that the suspect was set up to take the fall. This
conspiracy theory caught on with white supremacist groups in the U.S.,
showing how corrosive claims can easily spread online despite oceans and
linguistic and cultural barriers.
False and misleading claims can spread quickly following big news events
as people go online to look for information. Artificial intelligence
programs that can create lifelike video and audio can make it even
harder to find the truth, as can AI chatbots that routinely offer up
false information.
It happened again following Kirk's killing, when misinformation about
the shooting and the suspect quickly spread online.
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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, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News
via AP)
In recent years, groups looking to spread confusion or distrust have
seized on hurricanes, wars, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S.
Capitol, the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters, as well as the
attempted assassinations of President Donald Trump.
The details vary, but the conspiracy theories pushed by foreign
adversaries all suggest American institutions — the government, the
media, law enforcement, health care — are failing and can no longer
be trusted, and that more violence is likely.
Calls for social media companies to crack down
Regardless of the source of the information, social media companies
should do more to stop both foreign disinformation and domestic
calls for violence, said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for
Countering Digital Hate, which tracks online disinformation.
Posts calling for retaliatory violence following Kirk’s death have
been seen 43 million times on X alone, according to the center's
research, though it can’t say which posts came from foreign sources.
Platforms like X “are failing catastrophically to limit the reach of
posts that celebrate murder and mayhem,” Ahmed said.
Russia, China and Iran have all denied targeting Americans with
disinformation. Officials in China have specifically pushed back on
claims that Chinese social media bots are being used to amplify
false claims about the Kirk shooting.
“China condemns all unlawful and violent acts. That said, we firmly
oppose some US politicians accusing China of ‘instilling
disinformation and encouraging violence,'" a spokesperson for the
Chinese Foreign Ministry posted on X.
For foreign adversaries looking to sow discord in the U.S.,
disinformation can be highly effective — and cheap. For authorities
trying to keep the public informed, the false claims about Kirk's
death are a potentially dangerous effort to hijack American
discourse.
"There is a tremendous amount of disinformation we are tracking,”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said at a recent press
conference about Kirk's killing. “What we are seeing is our
adversaries want violence. We have bots from Russia, China, all over
the world that are trying to instill disinformation and encourage
violence.”
Cox urged people to ignore bogus claims that seem designed to elicit
fear — and suggested that Americans log off social media and spend
time with family instead.
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