Alleged FSU Shooter Falsely Portrayed as Radical Anti-Trumper
PLUS: Kremlin Trolls Abuse AI to Make Zelensky a Coked-Up Action Figure; Dr. Fauci Does Not Want to Kill Your Cat; RFK Jr. Sparks a Viral False Autism Claim
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In today’s edition:
After a mass shooting at Florida State University, pro-MAGA accounts rushed to falsely claim the alleged shooter was an anti-Trump leftist.
Pro-Kremlin accounts are using AI to churn out fake photos of Volodymyr Zelensky “action figure” boxes in which the Ukrainian president is surrounded by cocaine, cash, and weapons. The AI-generated images smear Zelensky as a drug-addled grifter begging for aid; one even states, “Squeeze me and I’ll ask for aid.”
A viral video from a known health misinformer falsely claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci wants to “slaughter millions of cats” to stop the spread of bird flu. The supposed proof? A clip from a speech in which Fauci accurately notes that bird flu has infected mammals, including cats.
Finally, in an interview on Fox News, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed, wrongly, that studies on vaccines and autism have never compared outcomes in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children. Social media users quickly turned the conspiracy theorist/HHS secretary’s bogus claim into a viral anti-vax pitch.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Sofia Rubinson and Eric Effron.
1. MAGA Sources Mispresent a Newspaper Photo and a Quote to Claim Alleged FSU Shooter Was an Anti-Trump Leftist
By Macrina Wang and Sarah Komar
What happened: Pro-Trump social media users are misrepresenting a protest photo and a comment in a January 2025 college newspaper article to falsely claim that the alleged perpetrator of the April 17 mass shooting at Florida State University, Phoenix Ikner, was a vocal critic of President Donald Trump.
Context: On April 17, a gunman opened fire at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, killing two people and wounding at least six, before he was apprehended by police, according to local law enforcement officials. In a news conference, Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil identified the gunman as Ikner, the son of a deputy sheriff.
A closer look: Trump supporters soon shared a photo, originally published in a Jan. 19, 2025, FSUNews.com article, of a protester at a Jan. 14, 2025, anti-Trump demonstration on FSU’s campus holding a sign with slogans including “Fight Trump and the GOP agenda!” and “Stand with Palestine!”
Conservative X user @OcrazioCornPop shared the photo and stated, “BREAKING: FSU shooter was an anti-Trump pro-Palestine radical leftist.” The post garnered 795,600 views and 6,300 likes in one day.
Pro-Trump X user @dittletv posted the photo with the caption, “BREAKING NEWS: Florida State University shooting suspect was a MASSIVE anti Trumper.” The post received 351,000 views and 1,100 likes in one day.
Actually: Ikner does not resemble the student in the photo.
The profile photo on Ikner’s Instagram account — which has since been taken offline — showed him as having a different hair type and facial features than the person in the photo, including a wider face.
NewsGuard determined that the FSU student in the photo is actually Oliver Cheese, who serves as planning chairperson for Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which describes itself as a local chapter of the national far-left organization SDS. Cheese did not respond to NewsGuard’s request for comment sent via direct message on Instagram.
To confirm Cheese’s identity, NewsGuard compared the photo with images of Cheese posted on Tallahassee SDS’s Instagram account and Cheese’s personal Instagram. Fact-checking website LeadStories.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100) also reported in an April 18 article that the demonstration photo showed Cheese, not Ikner.
Out-of-context comment: While the photo did not actually depict Ikner, he was quoted in the same story, fueling another false claim about the alleged shooter’s supposed political orientation.
In the FSUNews.com article published on Jan. 19, 2025, Ikner was quoted discussing the Jan. 14, 2025, anti-Trump rally on campus, stating: “I think it’s a little too late, he’s [Trump’s] already going to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 and there’s not really much you can do unless you outright revolt, and I don’t think anyone wants that.”
Conservative political commentator and Trump confidante Laura Loomer shared a screenshot of Ikner’s quote and stated: “The alleged shooter at FSU today. Hated Trump. I know the media was salivating over the thought they could blame it on a Trump supporter.” Her post received 697,000 views and 21,000 likes in one day.
Actually: Ikner’s full quote and the context in which it was provided suggest that he was criticizing the protesters, not lamenting that Trump was soon to be inaugurated.
In the article, the quote comes directly after a sentence stating that “groups of onlookers began to form” as the anti-Trump protesters marched through campus — implying that Ikner was one of the onlookers rather than a protester.
Ikner also told the student newspaper, in an apparently critical reference to the protesters, “These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons.”
Multiple people who knew Ikner when he was a student at Tallahassee State College before transferring to FSU in 2025 said he often expressed support for Trump and his policies.
Reid Seybold, an FSU senior who previously attended Tallahassee State College and headed a political discussion group there, told NBC News (Trust Score: 100/100) on April 17 that Ikner was asked to leave the group because “he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric and far-right rhetoric.”
Ikner sometimes expressed conservative political opinions during class discussions and came to class wearing a MAGA hat after the November election, former classmate Ian Townsend told The Ledger (Trust Score: 100/100), a newspaper in Lakeland, Florida.
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2. Pro-Kremlin Sources Jump on ‘AI Action Figure’ Trend to Falsely Depict Zelensky as Drug Abusing Aid Beggar
By Eva Maitland and McKenzie Sadeghi
What happened: Pro-Kremlin sources shared AI-generated photos of supposed action figure dolls to spread Russian propaganda, including posts depicting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a drug addict and corrupt warmonger, NewsGuard found.
Context: After OpenAI released its new image generator on March 25, many celebrities and politicians took part in a viral trend asking ChatGPT to create images of Barbie-style dolls in their likenesses.
A closer look: By mid-April, pro-Kremlin accounts had jumped on the trend, albeit for propaganda purposes, posting at least nine images promoting pro-Kremlin disinformation tropes.
One image showed a Zelensky figurine next to a bag of white powder labeled “mystery powder” with the phrase, “Squeeze me and I’ll ask for aid.” The photo generated 1.5 million views and circulated on X, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, and Telegram, where it was shared by a channel affiliated with the Russian mercenary Wagner Group.
Another image shared widely by pro-Kremlin accounts showed a doll figurine of Zelensky alongside bags of cash and a packet of cocaine, titled “International beggar.” The photo spread on X, Reddit, Bluesky, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads, generating 431,700 views.
Actually: The images, rated by AI detection tool Hive as 100 percent likely generated by ChatGPT, propagate well-worn Russian false claims that Zelensky squanders billions of dollars in Western aid and is also a drug addict.
ChatGPT previously prohibited the use of its tool to generate images of public figures. However, the company said in a March 25, 2025, statement that it now allows such content, although public figures can opt out of being portrayed by submitting a form. Still, OpenAI says it prohibits images that promote defamatory behavior, harmful stereotypes, or material that could mislead users.
In response to an April 2025 email seeking comment on the Zelensky cocaine images generated by its tool, OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson told NewsGuard that the company has established guardrails to prevent the creation of harmful content, such as recruitment materials and extremist propaganda.
Christianson added that OpenAI actively monitors images generated by its tool and takes action against any violations of its usage policies.
If a user manages to bypass these guardrails, Christianson explained, the images they create are still subject to OpenAI's usage policies, which prohibit the use of its technology for creating deceitful, harmful, or harassing content. OpenAI says violations of its policy could result in account suspensions or terminations.
However, Christianson did not address NewsGuard’s specific questions regarding whether the Zelensky cocaine images violate its policies and what steps, if any, are being taken by the company to prevent users from bypassing existing guardrails.
Clearly there are holes in the system. When NewsGuard prompted ChatGPT to recreate the Zelensky cocaine image, it declined. However, after NewsGuard modified the prompt to replace the word “cocaine” for “white sugar,” ChatGPT obliged.
Christianson did not respond to a follow up email asking again about the specific Zelensky examples.
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
3. Anthony Fauci Does Not Want to Kill Your Pet Cats to Fight Bird Flu
By John Gregory
What happened: Frequent misinformation source The People’s Voice (Trust Score: 0/100) is gaining hundreds of thousands of views spreading the false claim that Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is calling for the massacre of millions of pet cats in order to fight bird flu.
A closer look: The claim originated with Sean Adl-Tabatabai, founder of The People’s Voice, in an April 9 video titled, “Fauci Says Millions of Pet Cats Must Be Slaughtered to Fight Bird Flu Pandemic.”
Adl-Tabatabai said in the video that Fauci is “claiming cats are the key to the [bird flu] virus jumping species” and is “hell-bent on using this flimsy excuse to greenlight a mass culling of our beloved pets.”
The video included a clip of Fauci’s remarks at the New Orleans Book Festival on March 28, in which he accurately stated that the H5N1 bird flu “has taken the somewhat disturbing step of infecting mammals, namely cows and cats and other mammals, which means it’s adapting itself more to a human.”
The video generated 183,000 views and 2,300 likes on X in under 24 hours, a total that grew to 318,000 views and 5,100 likes as of April 15 as it spread on other platforms.
Actually: There is no evidence that Fauci made any statement about culling cats.
At no point in his remarks did Fauci suggest that cats needed to be killed to stop the spread of the virus, according to NewsGuard’s review of the full speech, which is available on YouTube.
According to a page on the website of the American Veterinary Medical Association, while it is unclear if cats infected with bird flu can infect other cats, “the risk of cat-to-human transmission is considered extremely low.”
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4. RFK Jr. Sparks False Claim Generating Millions of Views that Vaccine/Autism Studies Never Compared Vaccinated to Unvaccinated Children
By John Gregory
What happened: Some X and Telegram users, citing comments by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are falsely claiming that studies debunking the link between vaccines and autism are not comprehensive because they do not compare outcomes in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children.
A closer look: The false claim is based on remarks made by Kennedy in an April 10, 2025, interview on Fox News’ “The Story With Martha MacCallum.”
MacCallum asked Kennedy: “There was a thought that vaccines may be related to this [autism], then they did several studies that said there was no connection between vaccines and autism. So, what are you seeing in this data that you’re looking at or is it all going to be brand new?”
Kennedy responded: “The biggest weakness of those studies was they never studied vaccinated versus unvaccinated, which is the only way you can really make that determination.”
Kennedy’s claim was soon cited in articles on websites that NewsGuard has found to have repeatedly published false or egregiously misleading content, including TheBurningPlatform.com (Trust Score: 7.5/100) and ChildrensHealthDefense.org (Trust Score: 17.5/100), the site of an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy.
The claim then spread widely on social media platforms beginning with an April 13 X post by Lauren Lee (@sheislaurenlee), who identifies herself as a “writer & political commentator.” Lee’s post stated, “BREAKING: RFK Jr. Exposes a MAJOR Flaw in the Autism Data: ‘They never compared vaccinated to unvaccinated kids.’” The post garnered 2.2 million views and 28,000 likes in four days.
Actually: Multiple peer-reviewed studies dating to the 1990s that found no link between vaccines and autism did, in fact, compare vaccinated and unvaccinated children.
For example, a March 2019 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal compared autism rates in Denmark among 625,000 children who received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines to 31,000 unvaccinated children. The prevalence of autism was found to be lower among the vaccinated population.
Another study, published in 2015 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, included a total of 95,000 children — including 49,000 who did not receive the MMR vaccine — and found that MMR vaccination was not associated with an increased risk of autism.
The World Health Organization and many other health and science authorities, including the U.K. National Health Service and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, have repeatedly stated that there is no link between vaccines and autism, based on an abundance of scientific evidence.
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Your service is always appreciated and I am afraid that you will be overwhelmed with the loads of misinformation and disinformation being spread these days.
Keep up the good fight.