Retired Canadian falsely identified as Charlie Kirk shooter in 'thousands' of social media posts
A Canadian man has been falsely named as the shooter of right-wing media personality Charlie Kirk.
According to a New York Times report on Thursday, thousands of posts on social media spread photos of Michael Mallinson, alleging that he was a registered Democrat from Utah who shot and killed Kirk.
The Times confirmed with Mallinson in a phone interview on Wednesday that this is not true, and that he is actually a 77-year-old retired banker who lives in Toronto, and was in that city at the time of the shooting.
Social media accounts apparently assumed Mallinson was the person who shot Kirk because he resembled a man who was briefly detained by police after the incident.
“I’m just shocked by it,” Mallinson told the Times. “How quickly it can happen, how one’s name and photo can get spread around quite quickly.”
The rumour seems to have originated from an account on X called Fox 11 Reno, with the handle of @KRXITV. It is a fake account and has no ties to the Fox broadcast affiliate based in Nevada.
A spokesperson for Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the Fox affiliate in Nevada, told the Times that the account was “impersonating the station.” The company is trying to shut down the fake account.
These types of social media accounts appear to try and rake in traffic by publishing claims about developments in breaking news stories, so their posts rank high in search results. They aim to get people to click through to their phony websites, known as “information voids,” which then generates ad revenue for the site’s owner.
The misinformation about Mallinson went viral, with X users reposting his photo without verification.
Other users called Mallinson a “far left extremist” and “pure evil” in the replies to the original post, reported the Times.
Even Grok, X’s AI chatbot, repeated the misinformation, replying “the suspect, Michael Mallinson, was apprehended at the scene,” to some users. This may be because Grok sources some of its information from other X posts. The Times reported that other posts from Grok stated the connection was unconfirmed or discredited.
In the meantime, Mallinson told the publication that he has reported the incident to the local police and has attempted to remove his presence from all social media.
The 77-year-old works as a patient advocate for a rare form of arthritis. He told the Times that he uses social media to connect with people around the world, so wiping his presence was a difficult decision.
Mallinson added that he’s considering suing people or websites that falsely named him as the suspect the backlash continues.
“I would expect, because the news cycle moves so quickly, that it will blow over soon,” he told the Times. “But there’s always a chance that some idiots somewhere will get hold of this information a few months from now and start making noise about it.”
As of Thursday morning, Kirk’s actual shooter is still at large. According to CNN’s latest updates, a manhunt is underway.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s close ally was killed in broad daylight at an event at Utah Valley University. He is known for being a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment.