University of Kwazulu-Natal

Why Charlie Kirk S Assassination Video Spread On Social Media

Bonisiwe Shabane
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why charlie kirk s assassination video spread on social media

Moments after conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was shot, videos of his assassination reached millions. This is just one example of the alarming spread of violent content on social media. New York Times reporter Sheera Frenkel recently published a piece on this topic. Frenkel joins the show to discuss the phenomenon and the failure of social media companies to regulate the issue. HARI SREENIVASAN:a Bianna, thanks. Sheera Frenkel, thanks so much for joining us.

Just last week within moments of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we saw videos of that instantly gain so many views on different social media platforms. And I guess the first question, is why? SHEERA FRENKEL: We see this almost every time that there’s a violent incident caught on camera, people want to know what happened, and there’s a kind of a morbid fascination to see it for... If the incident happened in public, if there was a moment of violence that happened in public, you can be sure these days that someone was recording. And those videos seem to take less and less time to find their way to social media. SREENIVASAN: You know, this people opened up their phone and opened and clicked on an app, and then it was just like — there wasn’t even a choice.

It was just there, in their face, it was automatically playing. FRENKEL: I, I think what was so important about what you just said was the word choice. People had to choose to watch this sort of content, even, you know, 15, 20 years ago. You had to navigate to it. You had to select — you had to make a decision to say, I want to watch something violent and click your way through to that, even in the earliest days of the internet. Graphic videos of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination continued to spread across social media platforms Thursday, with many companies choosing to put the video behind content warnings rather than taking it down entirely.

On YouTube and Meta platforms, videos that showed the moment Kirk was hit by the bullet required users to acknowledge that they were willing to see sensitive content. On other platforms, including X and TikTok, many of the videos remained easily accessible without any warning. The spread of videos depicting violent incidents, like shootings, has been a perennial issue for social media platforms, complicated in recent years by a shift away from aggressive, human-based moderation. Most companies still have policies either banning or limiting the spread of gory videos. And while the backlash against moderation has generally been led by conservatives, some Republicans have called for action over the video of Kirk’s killing. Rep.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Wednesday that she hoped the video was removed from social media platforms, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., called on X CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok to take down videos of the shooting. Once you see the videos, you can't unsee them. Conservative political speaker Charlie Kirk was shot dead on a college campus Wednesday, Sept. 10. Late last month, Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on a train in North Carolina.

Graphic videos of both atrocities spread quickly and widely online this week, appearing in people's social media feeds, often with little-to-no warning. Getting confronted with gruesome, horrific imagery has, unfortunately, become an assumed risk when logging onto social media. Mental health and media experts, however, say the proliferation of violent videos online can have a deeply negative impact on our psyches − and that you don't have to view material like this in... "I don't think we have a responsibility to witness every instance of violence that happens," therapist Erik Anderson previously told USA TODAY. "People kind of need to be responsible for understanding what's going to trigger them and what they're able to tolerate." Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University in what the governor described as a "political assassination." Livestream video of the event showed crowds of...

Earlier this week, transit officials in North Carolina released a graphic video showing the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Zarutska on a light rail train. Minutes after conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was shot yesterday at a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University, jarring videos of the incident began circulating on apps like TikTok, Instagram, and X. In the immediate aftermath, the majority of the videos viewed by WIRED did not contain content warnings. Many began autoplaying before viewers had the option to consent. And on X, an AI-generated recap of the incident falsely indicated that Kirk had survived the shooting. Researchers tracking the spread of the shooting videos on social media say that major social platforms are falling short in enforcing their own content moderation rules, at a moment when political tensions and violence...

And the video of Kirk being fatally shot is somehow falling into a policy loophole, threading the needle between allowable “graphic content” and the category of “glorified violence” that violates platform rules. “It’s unbelievable how some of these videos are still up. And with the way this stuff spreads, it is absolutely impossible to take down or add warnings to all of these horrific videos if you don’t have a robust trust and safety program,” says... Over the past two years, social platforms like X, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram have scaled back their content moderation efforts—in some cases eliminating the work of human moderators who previously acted as a crucial... Many platforms use AI tools to try to spot and label potentially damaging video content, but the companies don’t always share specifics about how these tools are deployed. The videos of Kirk being shot show him sitting on a stool answering questions from students and other spectators.

The moments before, during, and after he was killed were captured on smartphones and shared quickly on social media. Many videos show Kirk suddenly recoiling, having been shot, and blood pouring from the left side of his neck. We updated this article to remove the word “alleged” in reference to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, reflecting the latest information from authorities. A disturbing video showing the assassination of conservative commentator, Charlie Kirk, is circulating widely online, and many people say it appeared in their feeds without them ever choosing to watch it. The clip has reignited questions about how social media platforms handle violent content and the impact it can have on children and families. Several people told 10 News they were shocked by what they saw.

“I thought it was a joke,” said social media user, Alex Coleman. “I was speechless. I was traumatized really from watching something like that.” “I didn’t think it was real, until I started seeing a whole bunch of other people posting it,” Ashley Logan said. Fox Business Correspondent Madison Alworth joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to report on the spread of Charlie Kirk’s assassination videos across social media. Social media platforms are facing scrutiny following the circulation of videos showing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk as the companies look to add warnings to the graphic content or remove it outright.

Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck and killed on Wednesday last week while talking to a large crowd of students during an outdoor event on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem,... Kirk's accused killer, Tyler Robinson, was taken into custody late Thursday. Videos of Kirk's assassination spread rapidly across social media platforms following the incident, prompting concerns about exposing users – including those who are underage – to the disturbing and graphic content without warning within... Major social media platforms are taking different approaches to handling the situation based on their respective community guidelines and terms of service, but are generally taking steps to either remove the graphic content or... Traditional news outlets were careful in their coverage of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination to not show graphic images of the event. But if people wanted to see graphic evidence of what happened to him, it was easily available online.

▶ Follow live updates on Charlie Kirk’s assassination They were careful with the explicit imagery — as usual. But did it make any difference? Traditional news organizations were cautious in their midafternoon coverage of Charlie Kirk’s assassination Wednesday not to depict the moment he was shot, instead showing video of him tossing a hat to his audience moments... In practical terms, though, it mattered little. Gory video of the shooting was available almost instantly online, from several angles, in slow-motion and real-time speed.

Millions of people watched. While legacy media were more restrained about showing graphic footage, it was easily available across X and Meta, writes Andrew Griffin From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important... At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Just minutes after Charlie Kirk had been shot in Utah, video of his death was not only easy to find, but for many, unavoidable to watch.

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