The condolence statement issued by the US Embassy in Uzbekistan to the relatives of Uzbek citizen Muhammada’ziz Umurzakov, who was killed in a shooting at Brown University, is being displayed incorrectly on social media. Kursiv Uzbekistan drew attention to the issue. This was reported by kursiv.uz reports .
When Facebook users share the link, a headline about the deportation of Uzbeks from the United States and a photo of laughing young people of different races appear instead of the story’s content. In fact, the condolence text was published on the embassy’s official website on December 15, one day after the tragedy at Brown University.
The statement, issued on behalf of Ambassador Jonathan Henick, says the news of the tragic death on December 13 of Brown University student Muhammada’ziz Umurzakov was received with deep sorrow, and condolences were extended to the deceased’s family, friends, and classmates. It also emphasizes that the loss of his bright future is a great tragedy, and asks God to grant mercy to the deceased.
However, on social media and in Google News the material appears in a different form. In particular, the Facebook link preview shows the SEO headline “Removal of Uzbekistanis from the United States” (“Deportation of Uzbeks from the United States”). On X, under the same headline, a description is being pulled in stating: “The US government deported more than 100 citizens of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan…”.
In the Google News feed, the deportation headline also remains, while the image shown is a photo from an official event unrelated to the condolence message. As of January 6, the issue remains unresolved.
Kursiv Uzbekistan requested a comment from the US Embassy regarding the matter. The embassy’s press service said the situation is due to a technical malfunction, that they are aware of the link preview issue on social platforms, and that after moving to a new web platform in the coming months, the problem is expected to be fixed.
As a reminder, Muhammada’ziz Umurzakov was one of two people killed in the shooting that occurred in the engineering building of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
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