Major US media outlets have been criticised for failing to give adequate attention to the shooting deaths of three Muslim students in North Carolina yesterday.
Social media users have adopted the hashtag #Muslimlivesmatter to express their discontent at the level of coverage of the story, with some branding it hypocritical and Islamophobic.
Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were killed in the university town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina yesterday. It is unclear at this stage what motivated the attack, with conflicting reports that it stemmed from a dispute over parking and an insistence from two of the victims' father that police treat it as a "hate crime".
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder over the deaths. In recent weeks he had posted anti-religious messages to Facebook, as well as an image of a revolver.
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After news of the shootings broke, social media users started tweeting their anger over how little coverage it was getting, using the hashtags #muslimlivesmatter and #chapelhillshootings.
Many have questioned whether the story would have been given more play if the shooter was Muslim and his victims were non-Muslims.
كاريكاتير | @LatuffCartoons @CNN @NBCNews @CBSNews @ABC @FoxNews #ChapelHillShooting pic.twitter.com/6VKmLWhyXY
