After UNC shooting, doctored news chyron sparks racial controversy

"Mostly white Asian. Seriously. Anyone wanna see how you sell fake racial division?" says an August 28, 2023 Instagram post.

"SHOOTER DESCRIBED AS 'MOSTLY WHITE ASIAN MALE,'" says the chyron, which includes a photo of the suspect.

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Screenshot of an Instagram post taken August 29, 2023

The doctored image spread across social media platforms including Facebook, TikTok and X, formerly Twitter.

The UNC campus came to a screeching halt on August 28, 2023, after a faculty member was shot and killed. Graduate student Tailei Qi was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the applied physical sciences department. As the news of the incident spread, so did the screenshot that sparked outrage among conservatives.

"They're making up designations to try & advance the phantom of white supremacy. The media is desperate to keep this narrative," one social media user wrote on August 29.

Others said the shooter's description, as seen in the social media posts, was an attempt by the news outlet to warp the narrative around the role racial tension plays in US shootings -- a day after a white gunman in Jacksonville, Florida took the lives of three Black people in what police have declared a hate crime.

But the apparent screenshot of the Fox News coverage has been altered to change the text, a network spokesperson told AFP.

"This is fake and did not air," said Fox spokesperson Irena Briganti in an email.

A review of the Fox News footage (archived here) also found no such chyron nor any implication that the shooter was described as "mostly white."

"UNC POLICE RELEASE PICTURE OF PERSON OF INTEREST," and "POLICE: IF YOU SEE THIS PERSON, KEEP YOUR DISTANCE," the captions say in the video.

AFP has fact-checked misinformation about other US shootings here and here.