WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Charlie Kirk’s wife revealed she was pregnant after her husband’s assassination.
OUR VERDICT
False. Erika Kirk has not revealed she is pregnant.
AAP FACTCHECK - Claims that Charlie Kirk's widow is pregnant are being shared widely as part of a flood of false information following the conservative US activist's shooting death.
Opportunistic social media pages are sharing fake news and images of Mr Kirk generated using artificial intelligence (AI) in an apparent drive for clicks and engagement.
One Facebook post, which has been viewed more than two million times, claims Mr Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, whose maiden name is Frantzve, is pregnant with their third child.
"America is shocked as Erika Lane Frantzve, Charlie Kirk's widow, reveals pregnancy amid tragic loss... 'WHAT SHOULD I DO?'" the caption reads.
Along with photos of her with her husband and their two children, the post features a photo of Mrs Kirk holding a sonogram of a baby that appears to have been created by AI.
The image also bears the watermark "HTV THINH," which is visible on similar posts that appear to be designed to elicit emotional reactions.
The claims have been repeated on several other Facebook pages.
There's no indication Mrs Kirk is pregnant and she has made no such announcement in her public statements since her husband's death.
Other posts make false claims about celebrities offering to support Mr Kirk's family financially, including Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton supposedly "pledging to pay all living and educational expenses" for his children or actor Robert De Niro making an unspecified "deeply personal offer" to Mrs Kirk that "no one could have predicted".
There are no credible media reports that any of this is true.
Other false Facebook posts - often using AI - have falsely claimed celebrities have made emotional public tributes to Mr Kirk, including Brad Pitt, Taylor Swift, Tiger Woods, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Tom Cruise and Madonna.
AAP FactCheck was unable to find any evidence that these celebrities made the statements attributed to them.
Another post claims US Attorney-General Pam Bondi comforted Mr Kirk's father at his son's funeral, using a video that was clearly AI-generated, while another post claims she pledged to "provide all living expenses for his children until they turn 18".
Mr Kirk's funeral hadn't even been held when the posts were made.
Like many Facebook accounts that capitalise on US news events, the page spreading several of these stories is actually being managed by people in another country.
Its contact information lists roads in Los Angeles with no street numbers, and the page transparency lists most of its managers in Vietnam.
Many of its posts appear to be aimed solely at attracting clicks, teasing vague claims, then providing a web link for the "full story".
Dan Halpin, the chief executive of cyber investigations firm Cybertrace, says these sorts of posts are often written using AI and designed to drive web traffic for advertising revenue.
"The challenge is that AI can generate huge volumes of content that look legitimate, making it far easier for false claims to spread and far harder for people to tell what's real," he told AAP FactCheck.
When AAP FactCheck debunked a similar claim about Britain's royal family, Mr Halpin said: "It's basically spam and many users don't check or care if it's true or not."
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
