Louisiana Republican demands social media companies delete anti-Charlie Kirk posts & ban users

Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, a former sheriff’s deputy from Louisiana, is demanding that social media platforms delete posts and permanently ban users who celebrated the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

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In a September 15 letter to the leaders of Meta, X, YouTube, TikTok, Bluesky, and Truth Social, Higgins insisted platforms “are rightfully expected to expeditiously remove” posts praising Kirk’s killing and bar their authors from creating new accounts. “Gleeful celebration of the heinous murder of an American citizen … is not to be tolerated within the accepted and legal parameters of a free and humane society,” Higgins wrote. He warned companies shielding users could lose the protections of Section 230, which shields platforms from liability for user content.

Related: Right-wing firebrand Charlie Kirk dead after shooting at university in Utah

The letter was sent to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X owner Elon Musk, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, and Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes.

Higgins’s letter itself drew ridicule. Alejandra Caraballo, a cyber law instructor at Harvard Law School, pointed out that it addressed female Bluesky CEO Jay Graber as one of the “gentlemen.” “They don’t even know who Jay is,” Caraballo wrote on Bluesky, calling the mistake emblematic of the letter’s overreach. “He also does not understand section 230 at all," she added.

Higgins, who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on federal law enforcement, argued restrictions are not censorship but a defense of constitutional order. “The reasonable restriction of public statements that lie far beyond the standards of our own society is not an oppression of free speech. It is, rather, the protection of free speech,” he claimed.

Higgins copied President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on the letter. On Monday, Trump said in the Oval Office that he would consider banning the display of LGBTQ+ Pride flags, which the First Amendment protects.

Related: JD Vance declares war on left-leaning organizations while hosting Charlie Kirk podcast

For years, conservatives railed against “cancel culture” and alleged censorship of their views. But in the wake of Kirk’s killing, Republicans are enforcing speech codes of their own, casting anyone who mocks Kirk or criticizes his politics as complicit in violence.

Kirk, founder of the right-wing group Turning Point USA, was gunned down last week while speaking at Utah Valley University. The 31-year-old activist, known for his anti-LGBTQ+ views and combative style on college campuses, was hosting a “Prove Me Wrong” debate event when a 22-year-old suspect allegedly opened fire from a rooftop. The killing, captured on video and circulated widely, shocked people across the political spectrum and ignited a political firestorm.

Bondi declared this week, “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, after what happened to Charlie, in our society.” She vowed, “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” However, constitutional experts stress that U.S. law does not recognize “hate speech” as an exception. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects even offensive or disturbing speech unless it crosses narrow lines: incitement, true threats, or targeted harassment.

An anonymous group calling itself the Charlie Kirk Data Foundation says it has logged more than 60,000 reports of users who criticized Kirk. Axios reports that hundreds of employees, including federal workers and service members, have already been fired after being flagged.

Pressure campaigns have also rippled across culture and government. Some NFL teams faced backlash for not observing moments of silence; cities and businesses were criticized for not lowering flags as Trump had ordered. The State Department has revoked visas and pursued deportations of immigrants accused of praising Kirk’s death online.

Even free speech absolutist Elon Musk, who bought Twitter for more than 40 billion dollars to allow users to say anything they wanted on the platform and once a critic of firings over online speech, and Vice President JD Vance, have encouraged outing those who celebrated Kirk’s death, with Vance urging Americans to “call their employer.”