{"id":603,"date":"2025-09-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/?p=603"},"modified":"2025-09-23T13:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T13:18:09","slug":"gops-calls-for-charlie-kirk-social-media-crackdown-hit-roadblocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/22\/gops-calls-for-charlie-kirk-social-media-crackdown-hit-roadblocks\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP's calls for Charlie Kirk social media crackdown hit roadblocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination earlier this month<\/a> spurred rare calls from the right for more content moderation measures on social media.<\/p>\n

At least two Republican lawmakers backed calls for social media platforms to remove graphic videos of the shooting, another called for lifetime bans for users who celebrated Kirk\u2019s death, while a senior Trump administration official suggested an end to anonymous accounts. <\/p>\n

A week later, these calls seem to have gained little traction in Congress, and social media experts say tech companies are unlikely to pursue any change without mandates or incentives.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, we need a change in direction on some of these issues,\u201d Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said at the Politico Tech and AI Summit on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

However, he cautioned against government-mandated censorship, pointing to the Biden administration\u2019s efforts to remove COVID-19 misinformation during the pandemic \u2014 a longtime GOP bugbear. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy view today is we need to empower individual users to make their own content moderation decisions,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd give them the tools to curate their online persona.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr set off a First Amendment firestorm this week with his threats<\/a> against ABC affiliates in his campaign to punish late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for comments about Kirk\u2019s death, which even some Republicans say crossed a constitutional line. <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just the latest example of how the polarized response to Kirk\u2019s death has tested the Republican Party\u2019s stance on free speech \u2014 especially on social media. <\/p>\n

Soon after the gunshot struck Kirk, who was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University, videos of the moment spread quickly across various social platforms. <\/p>\n

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) called for X, Meta and TikTok to take down videos<\/a> of Kirk\u2019s death, a call supported by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.). <\/p>\n

\u201c[At] some point, social media begins to desensitize humanity,\u201d Luna wrote Sept. 11, the day after the shooting. \u201cWe must still value life. Please take them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wrote later that day that TikTok had complied<\/a> with her request, adding, \u201cI have also asked them to take down content that uses this horrific incident to incite violence against others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waves of comments celebrating Kirk\u2019s death began almost immediately after news of his killing broke, to the disgust of Republican legislators and influencers. An online campaign to highlight these anti-Kirk users has led to dozens of firings and suspensions<\/a> of teachers, nurses, military members and others across society. <\/p>\n

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) wrote on Sept. 11 that social media companies should punish these users<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to use Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

Neither Luna nor Higgins have introduced legislation to regulate social media companies in the past week, and they did not respond to requests for comment on this story. <\/p>\n

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro personally called on<\/a> tech billionaire and X CEO Elon Musk to take action this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow about you start fighting back by cleaning up the cesspool otherwise known as X,\u201d Navarro wrote in a Monday post online. \u201cNo more anonymous posts.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Raqib Hameed Naik, executive director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, Kirk\u2019s assassination exposed gaps in moderation that allow \u201charmful content to proliferate unchecked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce such content begins to spread, moderation systems, which are already too slow and inconsistent, are rarely able to contain it,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Social media platforms have either removed the graphic videos of Kirk\u2019s shooting or made them harder to access. That the videos were able to go viral at all still concerns researchers such as Naik and Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor of information studies at University of California, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the assassination of Charlie Kirk and these discussions about content going viral or not, or deplatforming it or not, removing it or not, it brings up the bigger elephant in the room, which is, \u2018How do we wish for social media functioning in our democracies?’\u201d Srinivasan said. <\/p>\n

Some Republicans have renewed calls for the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Act, which protects social media platforms and other sites from civil liability for content posted by users. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese companies are taking content that makes you sick, that could get you killed, get you poisoned,\u201c Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said during an FBI oversight hearing Tuesday, \u201cand there\u2019s nothing we can do about it under our law \u2026 because of Section 230. \u201c<\/p>\n

FBI Director Kash Patel said he had long wanted to repeal the legal protections. <\/p>\n

However, Republican leaders have remained noncommittal on any specific legislative fixes after Kirk\u2019s killing. And the party\u2019s long-standing line of championing free speech on social media makes it unlikely it will coalesce around new restrictions, Srinivasan said. <\/p>\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats successfully pushed<\/a> for social platforms to crack down on disinformation and later pressured companies such as X and Meta to remove President Trump\u2019s account following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The GOP has since rallied against \u201ccensorship\u201d and successfully pressured Meta, Facebook\u2019s parent company, and X to reinstate Trump\u2019s accounts<\/a> and reduce their content moderation measures.<\/p>\n

Tech platforms appear unlikely to change their policies despite the recent online outrage. The Hill reached out to X, YouTube, Meta, Discord, and TikTok for comment about whether they were pursuing any changes after close-up videos of Kirk\u2019s death went viral last week. <\/p>\n

X and Discord didn\u2019t respond. YouTube, TikTok, and Meta spokespeople wrote that they were enforcing their community guidelines, including by removing videos that violate them. They didn\u2019t address whether they would change any policies to prevent similar violent videos from going viral. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an uncomfortable truth that platforms are profiting from this event, and that\u2019s built into deeper structures than content moderation,\u201d said Julie Hawke, a peace-building and research lead at Build-Up<\/a>, a nonprofit combating conflict online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ravi Iyer, managing director of the University of Southern California\u2019s Psychology of Technology Institute, said he doesn\u2019t want the government trying to police social media.  <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a First Amendment,\u201d Iyer said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s policymakers\u2019 jobs or the role of government to be deciding what people can and can\u2019t say online.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what can the government do to protect people from exposure to harmful or traumatic content online?<\/p>\n

Daniel Fessler, an anthropology professor at University of California, Los Angeles said any future legislation must be crafted \u201cin such a way that it cannot subsequently be abused by any government administration as the grounds for squelching, censoring, muzzling a free press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawke suggested legislation that could hold companies materially accountable for any harm caused by content on their platforms. This includes the spread of graphic videos, which medical experts say<\/a> can lead to psychological distress.<\/p>\n

Taxes and fines \u201care a good place to start,\u201d Hawke said. She pointed to the European Union\u2019s Digital Services Act, which threatens fines<\/a> on companies that don\u2019t adequately curb the spread of illegal content. <\/p>\n

Similar legislation would face an uphill climb under the current administration. Carr has called<\/a> the act a form of \u201cEuropean overreach\u201d that threatens First Amendment principles on digital platforms. <\/p>\n

Another avenue of possible legislation would include regulating social media companies\u2019 algorithms, which are designed to proliferate content that gets the most views or engagement \u2014 including graphic content that shocks viewers.<\/p>\n

So far, only a handful of states in the U.S. \u2014 including New York and Utah \u2014 have proposed legislation to regulate social media algorithms. New York\u2019s SAFE for Kids Act would require<\/a> that social media companies restrict addictive features in kids\u2019 accounts, while Utah\u2019s social media amendments<\/a> allow minors and their parents to sue social sites with addictive algorithms if they cause mental harm.<\/p>\n

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized engagement-based algorithms after Kirk\u2019s shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s in a political rhetoric context or not, tech platforms know that conflict and increasing conflict increases engagement, and I think that we have to ensure that they\u2019re responsible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But comprehensive legislation to regulate social media companies remains far off, Srinivasan said. He sees Republican calls for content moderation in the wake of Kirk\u2019s death as \u201cone-offs\u201d unlikely to realize any change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see almost any clarity or consensus, whether it\u2019s within the Republican Party, within the Democratic Party, or across parties around what to do about content moderation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination earlier this month spurred rare calls from the right for more content moderation measures on social media. At least two Republican lawmakers backed calls for social media platforms to remove graphic videos of the shooting, another called for lifetime bans for users who celebrated Kirk\u2019s death, while a senior Trump administration official […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":604,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603\/revisions\/604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}