- Accounts claiming to be the suspected
Uvalde school shooter have appeared onInstagram andTikTok . - Meta told Insider that it's removing the fake accounts and preventing users from making new ones.
Social media platforms including Instagram and TikTok have removed a wave of fake accounts themed after the suspected shooter's purported accounts in Tuesday's mass killing at a Texas elementary school after police revealed his identity following the attack.
Nineteen children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, were shot and killed Tuesday after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at the school.
Many of the fake accounts used a picture of a man who appears to be the suspect, who authorities shot and killed during the attack, wearing a gray hoodie. The photo is the same as the profile picture from a since-removed TikTok account that appears to have belonged to the gunman. Some Instagram users appear to have also changed their names to some similar version or iteration of the gunman's apparent account username.
The suspected shooter's Instagram account featured pictures of guns, including one image of two firearms posted only three days before the shooting, according to The Daily Beast. Instagram has since taken down that profile, and TikTok also removed an account under the same name.
Insider found at least half-a-dozen Instagram accounts on Wednesday afternoon with usernames using slight variations of the gunman's purported account name or featuring a photo tied to the suspect. One of the accounts with a similar name posted an image on Wednesday of a hand holding what looks like a gun.
A spokesperson for Meta told Insider the company is removing the imitation accounts and implementing measures to prevent users from creating new profiles.
Insider also viewed at least half-a-dozen accounts on TikTok on Wednesday morning with usernames similar to the one used by the shooter. Most of the accounts appeared to have been recently created, having no or just a few videos posted to them.
Representatives for TikTok did not return Insider's requests for comment Wednesday, though several profiles Insider sent to the company were removed after its inquiry.
Some of the accounts all used the same photo of the suspect, while others included similar language in the profile bio as the one reportedly used on the gunman's own social-media accounts before they were terminated.
One TikTok account had more than 1,100 followers and had made only one post, a video with a black background with the letters "LUV" written in white letters. That video gained more than 33,000 views before the account disappeared from TikTok on Wednesday.
Another account with a similar username began posting videos Tuesday following the shooting. The account posted four videos in total, most of which appeared to be unrelated to the shooting. The most-viewed clip uploaded to the account, however, had more than 11,000 views and included a photo of a person that had been misidentified as the shooter on social media, according to a report from Politifact.
Another account with a similar handle uploaded the same photo as a video to TikTok. That video got more than 20,000 views before the account disappeared from TikTok.
Tuesday's shooting, which was the deadliest school shooting in the US since 2012, was not the first time fake profiles emerged online shortly after authorities released details about a mass shooter.
Fake Instagram accounts appeared in December of last year after a gunman shot and killed four students at a Michigan high school, with profiles using the suspected shooter's name. At least one account was trying to monetize the killings by selling promotions on the account for $5, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Numerous fake Instagram accounts also appeared after the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which a gunman shot and killed 17 students at Stoneman Douglas High School. Some accounts reposted photos from the gunman's Instagram page, which had been suspended by Instagram, according to Quartz.
After a gunman shot and killed 10 people in a May 2018 attack at a high school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, fake Facebook profiles emerged with doctored photos that portrayed the gunman as either a Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump supporter, according to CNET.
Authorities are still investigating the Tuesday shooting in Texas and what kind of online footprint the suspect left before the attack. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a press conference on Wednesday that the shooter had sent several messages on Facebook prior to the shooting, indicating he planned to shoot his grandmother and open fire at the elementary school.
Andy Stone, Meta's policy communications director, said the messages were private and discovered after the shooting.