Russia, China, and Iran amplified false claims about Charlie Kirk’s assassination to exploit U.S. divisions and undermine American democracy, a NewsGuard report shows.
Foreign adversaries have seized on the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, flooding social media with conspiracy theories and divisive narratives, according to a report released Wednesday by NewsGuard.
The watchdog found that state media in Russia, Iran, and China mentioned Kirk 6,200 times between Sept. 10 and Sept. 17, often portraying the shooting as part of a wider plot to destabilize the United States. Russia’s RT amplified unsubstantiated claims that people near Kirk made hand signs to cue the gunman, while ultranationalist writer Aleksandr Dugin falsely alleged that the “Deep State” and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations orchestrated the killing. “Charlie Kirk was on our side of the front line that now divides humanity,” Dugin wrote. “The civil war in the U.S.A. is not something distant.”
Iranian outlets claimed Israel’s Mossad carried out the assassination to distract from events in Gaza, while Chinese media highlighted U.S. political dysfunction. One pro-China account falsely stated the suspected shooter had donated to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, where Kirk was killed on Sept. 10, warned: “We have bots from Russia, China, all over the world, that are trying to instill disinformation and encourage violence.”