Rockstar Games has seemingly added 'Charlie Kirk' the list of banned terms in Grand Theft Auto Online, after players kept recreating his assassination in the game.
Right-wing commentator Kirk was very publicly killed during a talk at a college in Utah in September last year, sparking huge divides across the US and much of the world, regarding his pro-gun politics.
Many people have found themselves in hot water for speaking publicly about the killing, including Jimmy Kimmel, who was sensationally taken off air for joking about Donald Trump's response to the murder.
Two months later, Rockstar introduced a mission creator to GTA Online, which allows players to make their own solo missions, and you can imagine what happened next.
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Players very quickly started recreating the events of 10 September, prompting Rockstar to start trying to delete all the missions depicting the shooting - a task which became increasingly difficult to keep up with.
Since then, videos have started emerging on social media showing what appear to be user-generated missions, including one titled 'We Are Charlie Kirk,' which features the player shooting a man in a setting that looks an awfully lot like a college campus.
According to a post made on X by a GTA insider, it looks like the developer has now added Kirk's name to the list of banned phrases under the game's profanity filter. Although this hasn't been confirmed, according to Kotaku, if you type in 'Charlie Kirk' while searching on the official custom jobs site on GTA Online, you'll receive an error message - same as if you type in any kind of slur or offensive term previously blocked by Rockstar.
However, if you search 'Charlie' or 'Kirk' as separate searches, you'll find that several maps like the one seen in 'We Are Charlie Kirk' have been removed from the platform.
After the clip was shared to X by GTA fan account @GTASixInfo, hundreds of people commented, with many sharing their distaste over the clip.
"This diabolic and insensitive. I'm surprised the that the mission is even live still. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should," one wrote, while another agreed: "This is absolutely disgusting behaviour."
But not everyone felt this way, with one person commenting: "Ok that's actually kind of funny,' and another simply adding: "Mission Kirked."
Regardless of how you feel about the Kirk-themed missions, Rockstar are going to have a hard time keeping on top of getting rid of them, as users are now starting to file them under phrases like 'Charlie Pink'.
Topics: Gaming, GTA, Charlie Kirk
Emma Rosemurgey