Rockstar bans ‘Charlie Kirk’ in user-created GTA Online missions

Rockstar Games is playing a game of whack-a-mole with Grand Theft Auto Online creators, who, after Rockstar added a new mission creator to the game back in December, are using the feature to recreate the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.

Kirk, 31-years-old, was killed on Sept. 10 last year via a gunshot to the neck during a public appearance at Utah Valley University. Kirk was well-known as a co-founder of Turning Point USA, a charity that advocates conservative politics among high school, college, and university students. Shortly after his death, those who were found commenting or joking about Kirk’s death found themselves in trouble, including talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, whose show was threatened to be pulled from the air by Disney and ABC. After protests, ABC soon walked back on that decision.

Months later, however, people have not forgotten Kirk. GTA Online’s creators have never shied away from controversy, and the franchise itself often finds itself mired in discussions about violence. But this time around, Rockstar Games has taken up the task of ridding its game of any whiff of the Charlie Kirk assassination.

This decision comes after weeks of players creating GTA Online missions referring to Kirk’s murder. One such example was posted on Jan. 12, with X account @GTASixInfo posting a clip of a GTA Online mission titled “We Are Charlie Kirk.” In the clip, we see a player up on a roof, armed with a sniper rifle, tasked with the goal to “kill the Actor.” The location is set out to look like a college campus, and, as the clip shows, the mission is only completed after killing the man assumed to be Kirk.

Rockstar’s answer to missions like this is to delete and outright ban any mention of Kirk through its profanity filters. Profanity filters usually catch slurs and profanity, but according to Variety, Rockstar will rename the tool to reflect its use in flagging “various content,” such as real-world events.

That hasn’t stopped players from trying to sidestep these filters, either by smashing “Charlie” and “Kirk” together or by using different languages. One such mission is shown below.

Whether Rockstar Games will succeed in banning the creation of such missions remains to be seen. The internet is full of creative people, and being told not to do something often ends up enticing more people to do just that. What’s clear is that Kirk’s assassination remains a hot topic of discussion, regardless of whether it’s in day-to-day political conversations or via user-created missions in one of gaming’s most popular franchises.