GTA Online Users Create Charlie Kirk Assassination Missions, But Rockstar Continues to Remove Them
Rockstar Games appears to be in a constant back-and-forth with some players of Grand Theft Auto Online who are utilizing the newly introduced mission creator to replicate the assassination of Charlie Kirk within the expansive online crime world.
Last September, right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk was tragically shot and killed during a public event at a college in Utah. Following this incident, many individuals, including notable figures, faced backlash for their comments or jokes about the situation, with some even losing their jobs. In December, just before the new year, Rockstar rolled out a mission creator for GTA Online, allowing players to craft their own solo missions. It didn’t take long for some users to start recreating Kirk’s assassination, prompting Rockstar to attempt to curb the spread of these assassination-themed missions.
On January 12, a Twitter account shared a clip of a user-generated mission titled “We Are Charlie Kirk,” where players are tasked with eliminating a character resembling Kirk on a college-like campus. The tweet claimed that due to this mission, Rockstar had added “Charlie Kirk” to the profanity filter in GTA Online. While the tweet gained traction, it remains uncertain whether Rockstar actually implemented this filter or if the mission was the catalyst.
Attempts to search for “Charlie Kirk” on the official custom jobs site for GTA Online now result in an error, similar to what happens when searching for other blocked terms. However, players can still search for “Charlie” or “Kirk” separately, revealing that previously shared missions related to Kirk seem to have been removed from the game since the mission creator’s launch. To bypass these restrictions, players have started using variations like “Charlie Pink” or combining his first and last names.
The ongoing question is whether Rockstar will continue this game of cat-and-mouse with creators looking to share their interpretations of Kirk’s murder. If history is any indication, Rockstar may face a challenging road ahead, especially as rumors of banned topics circulate online, encouraging more creators to test the limits of any filters. A similar situation unfolded in another game last year, where players used in-game tools to create controversial content referencing violent events.
