Did a variety of musicians, athletes, and coaches issue a lifetime ban against a man who was filmed "celebrating" in the immediate aftermath of Charlie Kirk's shooting? No, that's not true on two counts: First, the articles about the lifetime bans are not true. They are copy/paste clickbait slop -- a formula to intermingle names of celebrities with Charlie Kirk's to profit from the social media attention on the topic. Second, the man who was the subject of the purported bans was not celebrating after Kirk was shot, he was chanting "USA."
One example of the clickbait formula can be seen in a post (archived here) published on Facebook by the page Skybound Music on Sept. 14, 2025. The post's caption includes a link to a website:
Breaking News: Luke Bryan has issued a lifetime ban after discovering that a spectator photographed celebrating Charlie Kirk's death at Utah Valley University was none other than one of touring crew members. With steely resolve, Luke Bryan declared that neither the individual nor their family will ever be allowed near his shows again -- a blunt message that he will not tolerate disgrace or the mocking of tragedy....
▶️ Watch below👇 https://radiantmoon.net/.../luke-bryan-drops-hammer...
This is the image included in the post featuring Luke Bryan:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=122140537640829042&id=61574871281730)
Lead Stories published an article (archived here) adding context to a viral false claim on Sept. 11, 2025. The bearded man (yellow inset pictured above) was not celebrating in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Charlie Kirk. The man was in the audience at Utah Valley University, in the lowest tier of the amphitheater near the tent where Kirk was speaking. One post making the claim that he was celebrating had replaced the original audio with sad music and played the video in slow motion. The original footage with the audio, clearly showed the man was chanting "USA." This man published a video on X (archived here) on Sept. 12, 2025 explaining:
I stood and shouted USA. Not as a provocation, but to project strength, encourage others, and create a distraction that might calm panic or even save lives.
In the days since Charlie Kirk was killed, Facebook has been flooded with false claims coming from a network of pages which originate overseas. The pages were already established and regularly publish AI-generated tabloid-style content, frequently mixing celebrities' names with hot news of the day, sappy feel-good stories, or anything Elon Musk. They have now adjusted to capitalize on the attention focused on Kirk's death -- combining celebrity names with made-up situations involving Kirk.
The page transparency report (archived here) for Skybound Music shows the page is managed from Vietnam. In other recent fact checks of these clickbait campaigns, Lead Stories found page managers were based in places such as Indonesia, India, the Philippines, and Pakistan.
The website link included with the Luke Bryan post is radiantmoon.net but when clicked, the link redirects to sportnewss.livextop.com.
The gif below shows a few of the virtually identical posts found with a Facebook search featuring the names of people such as: Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton,Brian May, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Barry Gibb, Cliff Richard, Stevie Nicks, Willie Nelson, Darci Lynne, Yungblud, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day, Indiana Fever's Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Formula 1 superstars Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, Gators head coach Billy Napier, Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, S.C. Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer, Longhorns Head coach Steve Sarkisian, Derek Hough, Jamal Roberts and Bindi Irwin.
(Image Source: Lead Stories gif from Facebook search result screenshots.)
Lead Stories has written about several other false copy/paste themes generated by this network in recent days. One, regarding Charlie Kirk's father collapsing in grief at a memorial, another is about a musician's tribute to Charlie Kirk given "last night in New York City", and one more involves a "heartbreaking final text message from Charlie Kirk".
