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By Martha McHardy
US News Reporter
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Bluesky has issued a warning to users after some accounts celebrated the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
"Glorifying violence or harm violates Bluesky's Community Guidelines. We review reports and take action on content that celebrates harm against anyone. Violence has no place in healthy public discourse, and we're committed to fostering healthy, open conversations," the social media platform wrote in a post.
Kirk, 31, was the founder of the right-leaning youth organization Turning Point USA and a longtime ally of President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, as Kirk delivered a speech under a tent to a large crowd at Utah Valley University in Orem, a single gunshot struck him in the neck, and he collapsed. After being rushed to a local hospital, Kirk was later pronounced dead.
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Since then, dozens of posts have appeared on Bluesky celebrating his death.
Why It Matters
The warning highlights the challenges facing social media platforms such as Bluesky as they try to balance free expression with preventing the spread of violent rhetoric.
With political violence and threats increasingly spilling into online spaces, how Bluesky enforces its rules may be closely watched, both as a test of its moderation model and as a signal of how decentralized platforms handle harmful content.
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What To Know
Bluesky, which jumped in popularity after the 2024 presidential election as an alternative to Elon Musk's X, was not the only platform to issue a warning in the wake of Kirk's death.
Reddit and Meta have also issued similar warnings. A Reddit spokesperson told Newsweek, "Our sitewide rules prohibit encouraging, glorifying, inciting, or calling for violence." They also confirmed that moderators were being instructed on enforcement tools to remove violating content and added that Reddit was removing graphic footage of the incident.
Other platforms have also introduced measures to restrict graphic video content of Kirk's death, which appeared online almost immediately after the shooting and spread rapidly across multiple platforms.
Videos recorded by witnesses at the Utah Valley University event showed Kirk being shot in the neck and bleeding heavily as his body recoiled. Traditional media outlets, by contrast, generally avoided showing the moment the bullet made impact.
A Meta spokesperson told Newsweek that the company was removing "the most graphic content" of the shooting and placing warning labels on sensitive material, while also restricting younger users' access and removing any content glorifying or supporting the incident or the perpetrator.
Discord spokesperson Jillian Susi told The Verge that the company was "actively removing video and other content related to this incident that violates our policies," reiterating that its guidelines prohibited glorifying violence.
YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon expressed condolences to Kirk's family and told the Verge that the video-sharing site was elevating news coverage while removing "some graphic content" and age-restricting videos where necessary. He added that YouTube banned content "reveling in or mocking the death or serious injury of an identifiable individual."
TikTok and X have not commented on their content moderation policies following Kirk's death. Newsweek has contacted both platforms for comment via email.
Who Was Charlie Kirk?
Kirk was a divisive figure. He was well known for his conservative activism and his role in youth outreach aligned with Trump, especially on college campuses.
On gun rights, Kirk said in April: "I think it's worth 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. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe."
He also said on The Charlie Kirk Show in 2023: "You have a government that hates you. You have a traitor as the president. Buy weapons, I keep on saying that. Buy weapons. Buy ammo. If you go into a public place, bring a gun with you, and if you live in a state that doesn't allow you to do it, I got nothing for you, man. Thank goodness in Arizona we can carry and we carry."
On abortion, Kirk took a hard-line stance, praising the fall of Roe v. Wade and insisting that pro-life advocacy should not be watered down. In one debate, he drew ridicule after unknowingly declaring that a dolphin fetus was "without a doubt" a human being to argue against abortion rights. He also warned conservatives that "not voting for Trump is a ticket to one-party rule and would have nationalized abortion."
Kirk also gained a reputation not only as a conservative activist but also as a prominent promoter of conspiracy theories and misleading claims. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he repeatedly questioned vaccines and public health measures, at one point saying hydroxychloroquine was "100 percent effective" against the virus—a statement rated false by fact-checkers. He also described vaccine mandates as "medical apartheid" and suggested that Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci were engaged in sinister efforts to push mass vaccinations, framing these as part of a global agenda rather than a public health initiative.
Authorities said Kirk was killed with a single shot from a rooftop on Wednesday.
The shooter wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away to the courtyard where the event at which Kirk was speaking took place.
Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, wrote on X that a "subject" taken into custody after the shooting, who was initially thought to be the person responsible, was subsequently released after an interrogation. Another person was also taken into custody before being released.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: "The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"
New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters: "Enough of this. This is horrific. This [is] awful, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk risks an uncorking of political chaos and violence that we cannot risk in America."
What Happens Next
Federal, state and local authorities were still searching for an unidentified shooter early on Thursday and working what they called "multiple active crime scenes."
While the shooter has not been caught and no motive has been determined by investigators, the shooting is widely being interpreted as a political assassination.
Update, 9/11/25, 09:06 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Reddit and Meta.
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