Clickbait spreads false claims about celebrities mourning Charlie Kirk
- Published on September 17, 2025 at 23:26
- 5 min read
- By Marisha GOLDHAMER, AFP USA
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"Give me back my son, he's only 31," begins a September 12, 2025 Facebook post.
The post includes a picture of Kirk holding his daughter alongside another image of a man who appears to be crying. It continues: "A grieving father collapsed at the memorial for Charlie Kirk outside Turning Point USA's headquarters in Phoenix. Standing right beside him was music legend Paul McCartney, gently placing a hand on his shoulder, trying to offer strength."
The message links to an article headlined: "Paul McCartney's Gentle Presence at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial: A Song Without Words."
Nearly identical posts claimed musicians such as Stevie Nicks, Mick Jagger and Luke Bryan were on hand to comfort Kirk's father at an Arizona memorial.
Some posts substituted the musicians' names for sports stars, including Formula One driver Max Verstappen and golf legend Tiger Woods.
Others inserted the name and image of President Donald Trump's appointees Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro -- while again linking to articles on ad-filled websites.
Kirk, a polarizing political figure, was shot dead September 10 during an event at Utah Valley University.
The 33-hour manhunt for the suspect prompted a flood of misinformation, with innocent individuals falsely accused of being the shooter, AI-generated content spreading quickly and chatbots repeating false and unverified claims.
Prosecutors formally charged Tyler Robinson, 22, with murder on September 16, saying they will seek the death penalty.
Vice President JD Vance did accompany Kirk's body from Utah to Arizona aboard Air Force Two, and President Donald Trump has confirmed he plans to attend Kirk's September 21 funeral at the stadium that plays home to Arizona's NFL team.
Kirk's widow Erika has also mourned her husband publicly.
But there is no evidence Kirk's father offered remarks outside the Phoenix headquarters of Turning Point USA, the conservative organization founded by his son. Nor is there any record of McCartney -- or the other celebrities and officials named in the posts -- visiting memorials that have popped up around Arizona.
Suspicious posts
Keyword and image searches did not surface any verified photos of Kirk with his father, who People magazine reported worked as an architect.
A reverse image search for the picture featured in many posts appears to have been lifted from an obituary for a Robert W. Kirk who died in Monterey, Indiana in July 2008 -- and is not Kirk's father (archived here).
In some cases, the original picture was flipped and tears appear to have been added to the image.
The claims seem to come from a network of Facebook pages targeting members of the Baby Boomer generation. Coined "Boomer bait," such content is specifically designed to be emotional and prompt users to like, share and comment.
Researcher Marc Owen Jones found that some of the website domains used by these pages, including cafex.biz, are likely part of a coordinated influence operation or engagement farming network operated largely from Vietnam (archived here).
Each of the Facebook pages AFP found spreading claims about Kirk's father had page managers in Vietnam.
To check the location of people running a page, users can click on the "About" tab and examine the "Page transparency."
Other signs of the pages' and articles' inauthenticity include Facebook reviews complaining about false content, websites filled with advertisements and articles riddled with unattributed quotes, repetitive structures and unnatural English phrasing.
The US fact-checking organization Lead Stories identified other false claims about sports stars making donations to Kirk's family, which also spread via Facebook pages managed from Vietnam. AFP reported on similar clickbait in July 2025.
Meta policy says "creators, publishers and third-party providers sharing clickbait or sensationalism may be ineligible or lose their eligibility to monetize." However, both ProPublica and 404 Media have reported on how the platform's monetization program incentivizes people around the world to create low-quality content to attract the attention of the American audience.
Find more of AFP's reporting on misinformation surrounding the assassination of Kirk here.
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