Last week, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a Utah university.
22-year-old Utah man Tyler Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder over his death, and could face the death penalty.
Meanwhile, several people in the U.S. and at least one Australian have been suspended by their employer for online posts about Kirk’s death.
An anonymous crowdsourced database has been established to track social media users who have been critical of Kirk, or who have publicly celebrated his death.
Context
Kirk was considered an influential figure in conservative politics and a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump.
He was a podcaster and the founder of Turning Point USA, an organisation aimed at promoting conservative politics to young people.
Kirk had previously supported the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which includes “the right to bear arms”.
In the moments before he was shot, Kirk was answering a question about gun violence.
In the days following Kirk’s death, U.S. political figures condemned the fatal shooting.
Many members of the public also took to social media to discuss and criticise Kirk’s past comments.
In particular, several posts referenced comments Kirk had made about gun violence while speaking at an event for Turning Point USA in 2023.
“I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” Kirk said at the time.
Database
An anonymous online group now says it has begun crowd-sourcing the personal details of social media users who have been critical of Kirk or celebrated his death.
Originally named ‘Expose Charlie’s Murderers,’ the database has rebranded as the ‘Charlie Kirk Data Foundation’.
The bio of the project’s X account says: “We lawfully collect publicly-available data to analyse the prominence of support for political violence in the interest of public education.“
It claims to have collected more than 63,000 such examples online.
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The group behind the website said it is made up of “political operatives that have represented major parties,” and is creating an anonymised database that will be “searchable by general location, employer, and industry type.”
TDA could not verify these claims because the group’s website was down at the time of writing.
Government response
The U.S. Government has not responded to the database project specifically, however the Trump administration has vowed to punish military members and immigrants for comments about Kirk’s death.
Trump said he would target “political violence, including the organisations that fund it and support it.”
While guest-hosting an episode of Kirk’s podcast this week, U.S. Vice President JD Vance encouraged listeners to call the employers of those seen to be celebrating Kirk’s death.
Dismissals
On Saturday, Reuters reported that at least 15 people had been fired or suspended from their jobs for online comments about Kirk’s death.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said United Airlines had stood down a pilot for his comments on Kirk’s death.
Duffy reposted images shared by far-right influencer Milo Yiannopoulos, in which the pilot appeared to call Kirk a “f*cking Nazi,” on messaging app Discord. “There is no reality in which anyone is better off with him being alive,” the post said.
MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd was stood down after a TV appearance following Kirk’s death, where he said: “Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said she was fired after sharing a post to social media app Bluesky where she quoted Kirk’s previous comments that Black women lack the “brain processing power to be taken seriously.”
Cumberland University in Tennessee has also fired two employees for posting “inappropriate comments”.
Australia
South Australia Police confirmed it’s currently investigating an employee over a social media post allegedly celebrating Kirk’s death.
Multiple media outlets have reported the post said: “Amongst all Gaza, Ukraine, Trump news, sometimes something wonderful happens.”
The staffer behind the alleged comments is “now subject to an investigation under the Police Complaints Disciplinary Act,” a spokesperson for SA Police said.
