Online Conspiracy Theories About Charlie Kirk’s Death Are ‘Getting Really Ugly’: CNN

Just over a week after Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University, CNN reporter Marshall Cohen said social media is getting “really ugly” with conspiracy theories about the conservative activist’s death.

Cohen said data analytics from PeakMetrics showed there have been more than two million distinct posts on X referencing conspiracy theories since Kirk’s murder.

“They found that this was actually twice as many conspiratorial posts as there were last year, after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Think about that for a second,” Cohen said, continuing:

One expert who tracks disinformation told me that this is the worst he’s ever seen. And there are a few reasons for that. First, there was the extremely graphic close-up footage of Kirk’s death that instantly went viral, creating a visceral reaction. Also, this tragedy came at a time when 71% of Americans think that our society itself is broken, according to a Reuters poll. This creates the opening for crazy conspiracy theories to flourish.

Cohen broke down conspiracy theories that have come from the left, as well as the right.

“Some left-wing figures promoted the unhinged idea that Donald Trump himself orchestrated the murder to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the Jeffrey Epstein files,” Cohen said. “Other liberal activists tried to connect the suspect to far right-white supremacist groups that had previously clashed with Kirk, even though there is mounting evidence that the suspect disliked Kirk’s conservative views.”

On the right, Cohen said Trump allies like Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer have claimed that lone suspect Tyler Robinson was a bit player in a wide-reaching terror network.

“They’re peddling this even as the authorities say that the suspect acted alone. Other right wing influencers are leaning heavily into anti-semitic tropes to blame Israel,” Cohen said.

The reporter called ideas on both sides “uncorroborated, totally debunked, and some of them are just flat out crazy.”

“But as one disinformation expert told me, they don’t actually need to make any sense because the incentive on the internet are totally backwards,” Cohen said. “The influencers and podcasters and grifters promoting these theories need to churn out inflammatory hot-takes just like these to gain more followers, build their subscriber lists, and keep the money flowing.”

Watch above via CNN.