Michael Mallinson received an urgent call from his daughter shortly after Charlie Kirk, a right-wing influencer, was shot in Utah on Wednesday.
She informed him that his photo was circulating online, falsely identifying him as the shooter.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Mallinson, a 77-year-old retired banker living in Toronto, expressed his disbelief. Thousands of social media posts falsely labeled him as a registered Democrat from Utah who had shot Kirk. This confusion arose from his resemblance to a man briefly detained by police after the incident.
“I’m just shocked,” he said during the interview. “How quickly it can happen, how one’s name and photo can spread rapidly.”
Amid major breaking news, people often search for new information, sometimes leading to incorrect conclusions. Social media can exacerbate this, with unverified claims spreading swiftly before being confirmed.
In Mallinson’s case, the rumor seemed to stem from a social platform X account named Fox 11 Reno, unrelated to the Fox affiliate in Nevada. It’s a fake account, likely created to generate traffic and ad revenue for its own site. Until late last year, it posted only in Spanish under a different username. (The account later deleted its posts about the shooting.)
A Sinclair Broadcast Group spokesperson, which owns the Nevada Fox affiliate, confirmed the account was “impersonating the station” and efforts were underway to shut it down.
Such websites exploit “information voids” by publishing claims about breaking news to rank higher in search results. When users click on these sites for information, the owners earn ad revenue.
Other users on X quickly echoed the false claim about Mallinson, incorrectly citing “Fox” as their source. Some responses labeled Mallinson a “far-left extremist” or “Pure evil.” One post on X claimed Mallinson was the shooter and a registered Democrat, garnering nearly 3 million views.
Soon, Mallinson received direct messages on Facebook branding him a “savage,” among other insults.
Grok, Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot, repeated the false claims in some replies, stating “the suspect, Michael Mallinson, was apprehended at the scene.” Grok draws information from X posts. (Other Grok replies noted the connection as unconfirmed or discredited.)
X did not respond to a comment request.
Mallinson reported the incident to local police and attempted to erase his social media presence. This was hard, as he advocates for a rare arthritis condition and uses social media to connect globally.
He considers legal action against those spreading the falsehood if it persists.
“I expect the news cycle to move quickly, so it should blow over soon,” Mallinson said. “But there’s a chance some people might resurface this information later.”
