Official media in the three countries mentioned Kirk -- a close ally of President Donald Trump -- 6,200 times since the activist was shot dead last week during a speaking event on a Utah university campus, the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard reported citing data gathered using a social media analytics tool.
The assessment comes after the United States eliminated a key government agency that tracked foreign disinformation in April, framing the move as an effort to preserve "free speech," even as leading experts monitoring propaganda raised the alarm about the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries.
NewsGuard's report echoed recent warnings from Utah Governor Spencer Cox, who cautioned last week that US adversaries were spreading disinformation surrounding Kirk's killing to inflame political tensions.
"What we are seeing is our adversaries want violence," Cox said.
"We have bots from Russia, China, all over the world, that are trying to instill disinformation and encourage violence."
Much of the disinformation originated from Russian state media, which falsely claimed Ukrainian involvement and attempted to link the killing to Kirk’s opposition to American military aid to Kyiv, NewsGuard said.
There was no evidence linking Ukraine to the assassination.
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