Social media platform Bluesky has issued a warning to all of its users, saying it will remove posts or ban anyone who celebrates the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The alternative to X, which was born out of liberal outrage to Elon Musk’s purchase and renaming of Twitter, saw a wave of posts flood the platform, which openly cheered the murder of Kirk, a conservative commentator and activist.
Kirk, 31, was fatally shot while speaking to college students at Utah Valley University in Orem Wednesday afternoon.
In a post on Bluesky’s ‘Safety’ account, officials for the company wrote: ‘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 post continued.
According to the platform’s ‘Cardinal Directions,’ any of the 38 million users who violate that policy to celebrate Kirk’s assassination or promote violence against political activists could have their account suspended or removed from Bluesky.
Bluesky was not the only social platform and media outlet forced to take action following an outpouring of inflammatory comments and videos on Wednesday.
Meta, YouTube, Reddit, and Discord all issued statements denouncing any posts featuring the assassination, while MSNBC was forced to fire one of its political analysts for his remarks on air right after the shooting.
Charlie Kirk, a conservative influencer, was shot dead on Wednesday at the age of 31 while speaking at Utah Valley University
Bluesky posted a warning on its platform safety account, saying it will take action against any content that celebrates the shooting and death of Charlie Kirk
Bluesky has allowed users to share short posts, similar to tweets on X, while also advertising that the platform has stronger rules against hate speech.
It started as a side project inside Twitter in 2019, funded by then-CEO Jack Dorsey, to create a more open and user-controlled network.
However, Bluesky became an independent company in 2021 and fully launched its app to the public in 2023 in response to Musk’s changes to X.
Musk bought Twitter in late 2022 for $44 billion and eventually loosened content rules in an effort to ‘maximize free speech,’ which conservative voices have claimed was being suppressed on social media.
Many users left X because of their dislike for Musk’s support of Donald Trump before the 2024 presidential election.
The left-leaning site saw two million new users join after Musk officially joined the Trump Administration in November 2024, including progressives, journalists, and prominent anti-Trump voices.
Kirk, an outspoken supporter of President Trump, was the founder of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that promoted conservative values, free markets, and limited government to young people, especially on college campuses.
The 31-year-old was just 20 minutes into his debate-style forum during the ‘American Comeback’ event when a single gunshot rang out, fatally striking Kirk in the neck.
Kirk, the founder of conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, left behind his wife Erika and two children
Bluesky officially joined the social media market after the sale of Twitter to Trump supporter Elon Musk, leading millions to join in protest (Stock Image)
On social media, Kirk had just written ‘WE. ARE. SO. BACK’ while handing out hats to the 3,000-person crowd.
‘Utah Valley University is FIRED UP and READY for the first stop back on the American Comeback Tour,’ he added moments before the assassination.
An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures before the conservative event.
The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its ‘commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.’
After videos of the assassination began to circulate online, Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan reiterated the platform’s policy to ‘remove the most graphic content and add warning labels to other types of content so that people are aware it may be sensitive before they click through.’
Reddit spokesperson Gina Antonini told The Verge: ‘Our sitewide rules prohibit encouraging, glorifying, inciting, or calling for violence.’
Meanwhile, YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon expressed the company’s condolences to the Kirk family and added that the platform was actively monitoring for anyone posting graphic videos of the influencer’s death.
