Karen Attiah says she was fired by The Washington Post for comments posted on social media in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Author Jodi Picoult has spoken out about being put on “the list” of authors who are believed to have not appropriately mourned the death.
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show has been suspended, following his on-air remarks about Kirk in the days following the shooting.
Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance has endorsed a mass doxing effort in the US to track, intimidate and harass people deemed to have made inappropriate comments online immediately following the assassination.
The Trump administration has described the “radical left” as a “vast domestic terror movement”, with policy adviser Stephen Miller declaring they will “destroy these networks… and we will do it in Charlie’s name”. This is despite the evidence on Kirk’s shooter from law enforcement so far not producing any leads that he was a member of any such group, or had come under any such influence.
And here in Australia, we’re not immune to limits of what can and can’t be said, or even shared, following a political assassination.
South Australia Police are investigating an employee’s social media posts after comments were shared allegedly celebrating the assassination of Kirk.
The employee responded to questions from the ABC, noting that they had reposted “existing online stories”, and had not made any direct statements. They said, “Other than clearly not mourning this individual, I have barely responded to the hate.”
The limits of speech are being tested globally. Just as double standards further solidify regarding who can say what.
Sadly, there’s also a clear case of such double standards emerging in Australia.
Two Australian news influencers, Hannah Ferguson and Abbie Chatfield, have been described as “deranged” by a Sky News Australia host, for their comments criticising Kirk and for daring to bring up some of the comments Kirk has made in the past. This host described Ferguson and Chatfield as “disgusting” and “awful”. He also called them “nobodies” but dedicated a twenty-minute segment to condemning them, bringing in a couple of male panellists to support the effort.
Not content with a segment broadcast live on TV, it was later shared to social media – where one of Australia’s most engaged and prolific social media accounts, Sky News Australia, allowed its followers to run rampant over the pair.
There are almost 2000 comments on the Facebook post posted by Sky News Australia, many of them using misogynistic and even violent rhetoric in response to Ferguson and Chatfield. One comment (with over 100 likes) declared, “I hope they stand by their comments and someone enacts some acts of violence on them.” Another commenter asked for their home address. Another noted that, “Karma can be powerful. Be patient.”
The Facebook post is still up days later and continuing to generate further engagement on top of the already numerous violent and defamatory comments. And yet, there appears to be no moderation in progress from the Sky News team.
Earlier this week, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a conservative himself, declared there are “conflict entrepreneurs out there who benefit from radicalising us”.
The governor, who has issued powerful calls for peace in the wake of Kirk’s death, made the comment in response to Steve Bannon, who had made comments about Cox on his “War Room” podcast.
Conflict entrepreneurs are people who profit from fuelling rage and benefit from pitting some groups of people against others.
2025 is a profitable time to be a conflict entrepreneur, especially if you already have a following and power.
There’s outrage to leverage, clicks to bait, attention to capture — and ultimately, then, money to be made.
But now is also, apparently, a good time to get in on the action using the tools of tech entrepreneurs who are more than willing to help get viral messages of division out.
Indeed, a site called The Charlie’s Murderers was anonymously registered following Kirk’s death, claiming it has received 30,000 submissions of people sharing inappropriate posts about Kirk’s death. It had plans to create a searchable database, filterable by job industry and location. It was taken down after accepting donations in cryptocurrency.