Russia, China, and Iran are Using Charlie Kirk’s Assassination to Stoke Division
“While their narratives differ, and even contradict each other, they share a goal of undermining American democracy and its reputation globally.”
If you doubted the political enormity of Kirk’s assassination, this should cure you of that.
The New York Times reports:
Russia, China and Iran Use Kirk’s Murder to Stoke Conspiracy Theories and Division
In the week since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Russia, Iran and China have spread thousands of false or incendiary claims about what happened to the conservative activist, in an effort to stoke political divisions or to portray the United States as a dysfunctional country.
Official state media in the three countries mentioned Mr. Kirk 6,200 times from Sept. 10 to Sept. 17, framing the killing as a conspiracy, though they differed on the nature of the plot involved, according to an analysis on Wednesday by NewsGuard, a company that tracks disinformation online.
The findings underscored remarks made last week by Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, where Mr. Kirk was fatally shot during an appearance on a college campus on Sept. 10.
“What we are seeing is our adversaries want violence,” Mr. Cox said two days after the shooting. “We have bots from Russia, China, all over the world, that are trying to instill disinformation and encourage violence.”
Foreign influence campaigns have become a recurrent backdrop to virtually any news event in the United States — from natural disasters to elections to political crises.
Russia, China and Iran, especially, try to exploit events in the United States to push their own geopolitical agendas. While their narratives differ, and even contradict each other, they share a goal of undermining American democracy and its reputation globally.
Mr. Kirk’s assassination immediately generated a deluge of false claims, baseless speculation and conspiratorial thinking from domestic sources that has not yet relented. The country’s adversaries have seized the moment as well, at times amplifying the same unsubstantiated narratives.
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Comments
omar says
hold my falaffel
I was somewhat disappointed that this article did not address the obvious first question a reader would have — namely, “what lies are they telling?”
However, the NYT linked article does answer this question, and the author was nice enough to include a link that end-runs their paywall.