The Far Right's Exploitation of Charlie Kirk's Death: Incitement to Inform and Suppression of Free Speech

The Culture of Informing and Harassment: Natalie's Shocking Experience

Introduction: The right-wing movement contributes to shaping a society that encourages individuals to report on each other for what is considered "incorrect" or dissenting ideas. Escalation of Incidents: The recent period has seen an escalation in severe harassment, death threats, doxxing, and even job losses for individuals who posted comments on social media platforms that the right considered unacceptable.

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Natalie's Experience: Natalie's experience is a stark example of this; she posted a private joke on her Facebook page about the death of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing political activist and founder of Turning Point USA, who was shot and killed on September 10, 2025, during an event at Utah Valley University. Natalie deleted the post 20 minutes later at her husband's suggestion.

Beginning of the Crisis: The next day, Natalie received her first email threatening her with suicide, and it took less than 24 hours for the story to go viral. A screenshot of her comment was taken and posted by a right-wing influencer. While receiving death threats, Natalie, who runs her own small business, had to focus on a call with one of her clients, but her body was shaking so violently that she couldn't control it. She described the situation as "a very painful experience, and you wonder: Oh my God, for a silly Facebook post?"

Scale of Threats: On the first day, Natalie received 400 threatening calls, a deluge of emails, and a flood of one-star reviews for her business, forcing her to delete her online business pages. Personal Threats: Someone even sent her an edited photo appearing to show her burning alive in her car, while another sent a text message threatening to visit her neighborhood. Natalie, after reporting the incident to the police, had to hire a lawyer to remind law enforcement in her conservative area that doxxing is illegal in her state.

The Broader Goals of the Republican Party: From Harassment to Arming Citizens

Legislative Threats: The Republican Party's goals extend beyond merely harassing citizens for non-conforming views. Representative Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) threatened to use "legislative power and all his influence with major technology platforms to impose an immediate and permanent ban on every post or commenter that disparages the assassination of Charlie Kirk," founder of Turning Point USA.

Targeting Citizens: In a related context, Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) specifically targeted ordinary citizens, fueling a widespread harassment campaign. Blackburn wrote on platform X that an employee at Middle Tennessee State University should be "terminated from her position" because she wrote that she "had no sympathy" for Kirk's death, and the employee was indeed terminated.

Exposure of Identities: South Carolina Representatives Nancy Mace and William Timmons also revealed the identity of a teacher who posted a comment saying: "My deepest condolences to his children, but in my opinion, America became greater today. I said it." The teacher was fired.

Encouraging Reporting: Vice President J.D. Vance, who hosted "The Charlie Kirk Show" after his assassination and was a close ally, encouraged people to report any inappropriate comments about Kirk's death to the commenters' employers, saying: "Dox them, God damn it, call their employers."

Arming Citizens: The administration is exploiting the death of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist, as a means to arm citizens against each other. The Republican Party's objectives appear broader than merely targeting individuals for their unconventional views.

Funding Cuts: Representative Mace also posted about urging the Department of Education to cut funding "to any elementary, secondary, or post-secondary educational institution" that does not sufficiently fire its employees for disrespecting Kirk's memory.

Repressive Plans: Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance, along with presidential advisor Stephen Miller, outlined plans "to bring the weight of the federal government down on what they alleged was a left-wing network funding and inciting violence," according to The New York Times.

Administration's Impact: Since Charlie Kirk's killing, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers have been quick to blame the "radical left" for the rise in political violence, despite the majority of shooting incidents being committed by right-wing extremists. Instead, the administration is exploiting Kirk's death as a means to arm citizens against each other, creating a chilling effect that suppresses left-wing free speech. Additionally, one of the right's most powerful allies is a billionaire who owns the social media platform that has long facilitated online harassment campaigns.

Elon Musk and Social Media Platforms: A History of Harassment and Defamation Campaigns

Elon Musk's Intervention: Elon Musk, known as a "free speech absolutist," is randomly trying to get Microsoft employees fired by doxxing their CEO, Satya Nadella, with screenshots of posts Musk deems unacceptable.

Unjustified Targeting: Some of these screenshot posts seem completely unrelated to merely criticizing Charlie Kirk's views; for example, one shows someone describing DC comics as "weak" for canceling the "Red Hood" series written by transgender author Gretchen Felker-Martin. The series was canceled after Felker-Martin made comments like "My deepest condolences, you Nazi f***" after Kirk's death.

Targeting Retweets: Other employees have not even been questioned for their direct words, but for retweeting content – a core mechanism of platform X. The series of comments linked by Musk pointed to seemingly innocent posts, such as journalist Radley Balko retweeting on Bluesky: "When a right-wing man killed Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, progressives asked MAGA to tone down the rhetoric to prevent more violence. Within hours of Kirk's killing, whose motive is still unknown, the right is demanding the government wage a campaign of violence against their enemies."

Precedents of Right-Wing Harassment: Right-wing harassment campaigns are not an entirely new phenomenon. The most famous iteration, "Gamergate", targeted women who criticized misogyny in video games; it began in 2014 with the breakdown of a video game developer's relationship and the discussion about it ended at the United Nations.

Rise of the Alt-Right: This campaign also marked the emergence of what is known as the "Alt-Right", with figures like Mike Cernovich, Adam Baldwin, and Milo Yiannopoulos shifting the discourse away from video games toward punishing 'social justice warriors.' This move was deliberate, according to Steve Bannon, who hired Yiannopoulos at Breitbart, where he stated: 'You can activate this army. They come through Gamergate or anything else, and then they move toward politics and [Donald] Trump'."

“Benefits of Using Knowledge Graphs” — Source: Pixabay. License: Pixabay License.

New Doxxing Platforms: This time, the doxxing platforms weren't 4chan or 8chan, but platform X and charliesmurderers.com, a website created by right-wing activists targeting anyone who posted a comment about Charlie Kirk's death in a way that conservatives deemed unacceptable.

"Trophy" Accounts: There are accounts on X celebrating 'trophies' – that is, people who are fired from their jobs for saying things the right deemed unacceptable about Kirk's death.

Professor Watchlist: In a way, this doxxing site was a fitting tribute to Charlie Kirk's memory, as his organization, Turning Point USA, maintained a 'Professor Watchlist' that targeted them for harassment.

Natalie's Testimony: Natalie says: "Until it happens to you, you just hear, 'Oh, the Carolina Panthers communications director was fired,' and you think their bosses saw his tweet. But the truth is there were people trying to destroy their lives."

Psychological Effects and the Impact of Fear: The Echo of Repression on Individuals

Encouraging Mutual Monitoring: Social media platforms encourage ordinary individuals to monitor each other. These same motivations – weaponizing the spread of viral content on platforms like X and TikTok – are what drive the right's large and anonymous army of trolls to doxx and abuse ordinary people.

Role of Influencers and Informants: And as happened with "Gamergate", some influencers gain leverage by encouraging harassment campaigns. But both the army of trolls and influencers need another group: informants.

Surveillance Tools: When people post a video of an executive hanging out at a concert, they are using means of resisting government abuse against each other; and when people post a video of a woman arguing about Charlie Kirk's death in a campus "free speech zone" with the aim of getting her expelled from college, they become surveillance tools for a repressive state.

"You might be pulled out of your echo chamber and put in the spotlight, feeling like your life is over." Because it was a private Facebook post, Natalie's fateful comment was screenshotted by someone she knew; she even guesses who it was. If her guesses are correct, the flood of hate was caused by someone she had known for nearly 20 years, whom she once considered a close friend.

Betrayal by Friends: Natalie says: "The fact that it was someone I knew – people don't seem to care about that anymore. Just today, another friend of mine is being doxxed, and all she did was share existing posts."

Psychological Effects of Harassment: Natalie describes the result of the harassment as a panic attack that lasted for consecutive days. She felt paranoid and scared. She has an upcoming flight and found herself worrying that the plane might crash just because she's on it. She fears the president might say something about her, which could lead to another wave of harassment. She says: "The only thing keeping me sane is remembering that I'm not special. But I'm not okay."

Changing Online Behavior: This experience has changed how Natalie thinks about social media platforms and what she is willing to post. She travels for work, but now she will never post the city she is in while traveling. She asked friends to hide photos showing the inside of her house, so trolls cannot figure out its layout.

Aversion to Politics: She never wants to talk about politics online again. She says: "I'm done liking a political post – or sharing one. No one deserves for me to feel this way again. You might be snatched from your echo chamber and put in the spotlight, feeling like your life is over. It's not worth it."