Just hours after Charlie Kirk’s death was confirmed, hundreds of advertisements for memorial merchandise appeared on Facebook and Instagram.
In a viral post with more than 8,000 shares and hundreds of thousands of likes, the brand See Jesus In You promoted an “Echo of Freedom” shirt with an American flag and Kirk’s signature, calling him a symbol of “faith, liberty, and America”. The simple shirt, which Kirk was wearing when he was assassinated, has become a hot commodity among his conservative supporters. Another clothing brand, Liberty Faith Gear, struck a much more combative tone in marketing its version of the freedom tee, as it urged “patriots [to] rise when freedom is attacked. We do not hide. We do not bow.”
Neither of these brands are affiliated with Kirk’s Turning Point USA, nor are they based in the US. In fact, they are both run by Guangzhou Shiwei Network Technology, an e-commerce company based in Panyu, China’s fast-fashion capital in the southern province of Guangdong.
Foreign apparel and merchandise companies have rushed to cash in on Kirk’s assassination in the weeks since his assassination. The Guardian identified at least seven other such companies hawking Kirk merch from overseas: Harbin Huanjia Trading Limited, Jinhua Hongrun E-Commerce and others with similar, nondescript names. Like Guangzhou Shiwei, which has a history of exploiting highly partisan and culture-war-themed products, these companies flooded Facebook and Instagram with thousands of memorial merchandise ads. The brands urged prospective buyers to honor Kirk’s legacy by purchasing their shirts, sometimes even promising to donate profits to his organizations or his family.
Guangzhou Shiwei, founded in 2021, specializes in “multi-channel cross-border e-commerce operations”, according to Chinese corporate records. The company operates a network of three dozen social media accounts and numerous e-commerce sites and was among the first to place ads exploiting Kirk’s death. Each account – some focusing on faith and religion, while others on patriotism and freedom – targets different communities across the US to drive engagement and sales.
Alongside Facebook accounts with names such as See Jesus In You, Liberty Faith Gear, and USA Freedom T, Guangzhou Shiwei runs USA Veterans Made – a “Florida-based, veteran-powered brand” that promises that its products are “made by veterans, for patriots” – and Wear Freedom Proudly. The pages feature images of Kirk and the Turning Point USA logo prominently and state they “support[s] TPUSA chapters nationwide”. In addition to using language and tropes familiar to many Americans, these accounts often list fake US addresses on their Facebook profiles to bolster their online legitimacy. For example, the address listed on Wear Freedom Proudly, supposedly near San Antonio, Texas, is actually a gas station, per Google Maps.
A Turning Point USA official told the Guardian that the Wear Freedom Proudly brand is not affiliated with the organization.
In some of these ads, Guangzhou Shiwei Network Technology’s brands even claimed “100% of the profits from this shirt will go directly to Turning Point USA”, a shocking claim that, if true, would suggest foreign companies were funneling money to a US non-profit that has played a significant role in the conservative movement and political discourse. Such donations are illegal under US law.
Attempts to reach the company for comment by the Guardian were unsuccessful.
Following Kirk’s death and amid heated US debates over the culprit and free speech, state media and state-backed actors in Russia, Iran, and China rushed to exploit the controversy and sow division. The tactics of “astroturfing,” or generating the impression of widespread popularity through the use of false identities, were first widely noticed by many Americans during the 2016 election. Profit-driven companies, however, have long deployed it as part of their political influence campaigns.
Darren Linvill, a Clemson University professor who studies media disinformation, noted that leveraging political moments is nothing new for marketers, particularly in a market as large as the US.
“There’s a reason why these networks exist. They’re incredibly lucrative,” said Linvill. “If we could eliminate cryptocurrency and T-shirt sales, we would shut down half of the trolls on social media.”
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Kirk’s death is not the first time Guangzhou Shiwei has employed these deceptive methods. In the run-up to last year’s presidential election, the same accounts, operated by the same company, were found using similar strategies of pledging illegal political donations to the Trump campaign, the Harris campaign and Pacs supporting both Democratic and Republican candidates – all to promote its apparel products, including “childless cat lady” T-shirts and “only you can prevent Kamunism” baseball caps.
At the time, 404 Media, the technology news site that first reported on the network of accounts, reported that hundreds of these ads were removed after the outlet contacted Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Yet Guangzhou Shiwei has continued to operate many of the same accounts and used them to run ads promoting Kirk-themed products in recent weeks.
Meta said in a statement: “Scammers unfortunately capitalize on current events to target people who are highly engaged online.” The company said that it had removed the ads identified by the Guardian and the accounts that placed them for violating its policies, and would “continue to take action against any content and accounts that break our rules”.
Despite the company’s enforcement, many of the astroturfing accounts remain active on Meta’s platforms and continue to buy ads. They have also placed hundreds promoting a red T-shirt, urging Americans to wear it on 14 October, which would have been Kirk’s birthday, even though neither Turning Point USA nor any prominent conservatives have endorsed the effort.
