Fact check: Facebook post claiming to be from Atlanta spa shooting suspect is fake

The claim: The accused Atlanta spa shooter authored a Facebook post on China being engaged in a ‘COVID coverup’

Following the deadly March 16 shootings in Atlanta-area spas that left eight people dead, most of them women of Asian descent, a viral screenshot surfaced on social media claiming to come from Robert Aaron Long, the 21-year-old suspected gunman. 

Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, was charged by authorities with eight counts of murder in three different shootings related to massage parlors: Young’s Asian Massage Parlor, Aromatherapy Spa and Gold Spa. 

The victims: Business owner, Army veteran, woman on a date: The victims of the deadly rampage through 3 spas in Georgia

While officials have stated it is too early in the investigation to announce a motive, social media posts suggest Long’s motivations were revealed in an anti-China Facebook post that he purportedly authored prior to the fatal shootings. 

The alleged post, shared as a screen grab by Facebook users, claims Long wrote, “China is engaged in a COVID coverup” and “blocked out investigators from going to their lab in Wuhan and finding the truth about the experiments they were conducting there.” 

The post has a time stamp of 1:45 a.m. and includes the suspect’s name in blue letters along with a profile image of Long that was released by authorities while they were tracking him down. 

“This was one of his most recent facebook posts btw. ‘Motive still unclear’ but whatever,” the user captioned the March 17 post.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook users for comment. 

Facebook confirms post is not authentic 

There is no evidence that the image shared by social media users is an authentic post from Long. Facebook confirmed to USA TODAY that the post is fake and would be removed from the platform.

“We’ve confirmed that these screenshots are fake, and we’re removing them from the platform for violating our policies,” Facebook company spokesman Andy Stone wrote in an email. 

Facebook is designating the shooting as a “violating event” and any content on the platform that praises the shooting or shooter will be removed. Users are also not able to create an account on Facebook or Instagram using the same name as the suspected shooter, according to Mashable. 

Visual timeline: What happened at Atlanta spa shootings

Clues that the image is manipulated

Davey Alba, a technology reporter at The New York Times, pointed out on Twitter that a closer look at the positioning of the profile picture and reactions in the fake post shows that the graphics are misaligned. 

Another visual indicator revealing that the image is manipulated is the blue lettering of the profile name. Authentic Facebook usernames are displayed in black letters. 

The fake screenshot went viral after it was shared by the Daily Mao on Twitter, however, the original tweet has now been deleted. In a follow-up message, the account tweeted that its source “can’t find the original post from the shooter anymore” and that the information is not verified. 

On March 17, authorities said it was too early to determine if the shootings would be considered a hate crime, a charge that authorities must prove a crime was committed on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation, USA TODAY reported. 

South Korean Foreign Ministry said its diplomats in Atlanta confirmed that four of the women were of Korean descent and police said two others were of Asian descent. The killings came amid a surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans in the United States. 

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Our rating: False

The claim that Atlanta spa shooting suspect Robert Aaron Long authored a post on Facebook about China engaging in a “COVID coverup” is FALSE, based on our research. Facebook confirmed that the post is fake and that it will be removed from the platform. The image also includes visual flaws that further indicate the photo was manipulated. 

Our fact-check sources:

  • Andy Stone, March 18, email to USA TODAY
  • Andy Stone, March 17, tweet
  • Davey Alba, March 17, tweet
  • USA TODAY, March 17, Atlanta spa shootings suspect charged with murder; too soon to tell if killings were racially motivated, police say
  • USA TODAY, March 17, Georgia spa shootings: Suspect officially charged after 8 people killed at 3 businesses; most victims were Asian
  • The United States Department of Justice, accessed March 18, Learn about hate crimes
  • Mashable, March 17, Facebook will remove posts praising Atlanta shooting
  • The Daily Mao, March 17, tweet

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Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

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