BURST
The T umbler Ridge mass shooting didn’t just devastate a community, it sparked a flurry of false information about the shooter online, sweeping up innocent people and leaving some struggling to cope, experts say.
Canada’s second-deadliest shooting on Tuesday, left eight people dead and two more seriously injured, most at a school. Police identified the shooter as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar , who died by suicide.
Hours after the RCMP confirmed her identity Wednesday, social media was flooded with false images and misattributed accounts, wrongly identifying other people as the shooter.
For one Ontario woman, living thousands of kilometres from the B.C. crime scene, that online battering was all too real. Her photograph circulated widely on social media, with hundreds of posts falsely claiming she was responsible for the mass murder and including disparaging comments. Influencers and some news outlets amplified the image before corrections were issued. By then, the damage was done.
The innocent woman’s mother told Agence France-Presse that her daughter was “devastated” by the situation, afraid to go outside after being misidentified.
B.C.’s human rights commissioner has issued a statement calling attention to the danger.
“Horrific incidents like this make us all search for answers; ‘How do we prevent this from happening again?’ If we are to come up with answers that actually make us safer, we must uncover and rely on real facts, not disinformation,” Kasari Govender said .
Govender confirmed that some misinformation circulating online about the shooter has been used alongside “hateful narratives.”
Elon Musk, owner of X, shared multiple posts to his 234 million followers that claimed transgender people are more likely to carry out mass shootings.
“When we look at the data, it tells us a different story,” Govender said. “Trans people are substantially more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators of violent crimes” and “make up far less than one per cent (of mass shooters) in the U.S.”
Disinformation about Van Rootselaar didn’t stop there. A social media account on X, believed to belong to her, was widely shared and used to speculate about possible motives and ideology.
The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based civil rights and advocacy organization, cited the profile in a preliminary report, stating it appeared the shooter had an interest in “gore, guns and white supremacy.”
However, the account was later determined to have been created by an impersonator. The ADL issued a correction Thursday, saying: “Upon further investigation, that X account has been found not credible.”
Some misinformation can be traced to a years-old Facebook post from the shooter’s mother, Jennifer Strang, who had previously shared Van Rootselaar’s YouTube channel, noting the teen “doesn’t go on much other social media.” Hours after police confirmed Van Rootselaar’s identity, users circulated the channel and searched for other online profiles linked to her, prompting credible accounts to be taken offline or set to private.
Experts say this pattern is familiar following mass tragedies.
Heidi Tworek, an associate history professor and director of the University of B.C.’s Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, said that when official information about the suspect of a mass shooting isn’t immediately available, people rush to fill the void and posts spread rapidly, which ignites broad debates on topics like mental health, gun control and gender.
“It’s like a wildfire,” said Tworek. “Even if the total sum of the information shared about the Tumbler Ridge tragedy is accurate, even a small amount being inaccurate can have terrible real-world consequences.”
Tworek used a 2025 example of when the online image of a Toronto senior was falsely linked to the death of U.S. commentator Charlie Kirk to show how quickly misinformation can spread after major events.
“Understand that in the first few days or weeks after a tragedy, misidentifications and misinformation are common. So before you share something on social media, ask yourself, ‘Why?’”
“And if you care enough to share it, then you’ve got to care enough to double-check (that) it’s been confirmed by credible sources.”
Even though engagement with traditional news sources like radio, TV and newspapers historically has risen following mass tragedies, Tworek said the risk of misinformation has grown since Musk took over X and Meta ended fact-checking.
Misinformation and disinformation were listed as the top global risks in a 2024 World Economic Forum report, outranking war, health epidemics and climate change.
Misinformation and disinformation are symptoms of bigger societal problems, Tworek said. She added that obsessing over false information can distract from real-world issues and leave people feeling powerless and distrustful of institutions.
“Consider whether the time you’re spending on unverified content could be better used elsewhere right now, especially as verified information is still emerging.”