“We Are Charlie Kirk”. This is the title of a mission created by some users of GTA Online. Set on a university campus, the sequence asks the player to reach the roof of a building, grab a sniper rifle and shoot a man intent on giving a public speech. The victim is clearly inspired by Charlie Kirk. The American right-wing exponent was killed last September 10th with a gunshot around his neck during a university event in Orem, Utah.
Faced with missions of this type, the game manufacturer Rockstar Games has taken action to eliminate and ban any direct references to Charlie Kirk via moderation filters. Typically, these tools are used for limit vulgarity and language offensive but are now being extended in an attempt to prevent the videogame reworking of real events deemed sensitive. A measure that, however, is proving to be far from definitive, given that GTA Online users are circumventing the restrictions through the use of altered names, puns and languages other than English.
GTA as a political tool of the players
It is not the first time that Grand Theft Auto, a franchise linked to an extreme and satirical representation of crime, becomes a stage in which news events are re-enacted. During the 2019 Hong Kong protests, for example, GTA V’s online mode transformed into a virtual battleground between supporters of the territory’s autonomy and Chinese players. Coordinated through platforms such as LIHKG and Weibo, the two sides engaged in symbolic clashes, with Hong Kong protesters impersonated by avatars dressed in the iconic protest outfit (mask and yellow helmet) and Chinese players as the police force.
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A similar phenomenon was repeated in 2020, following the killing of George Floyd and the explosion of the movement’s protests Black Lives Matter. On that occasion, GTA was used by numerous users to stage virtual demonstrations against US police brutality towards the African-American community. In addition to Rockstar Games’ symbolic decision to shut down the servers for two hours as a sign of commemoration, players organized peaceful protests in front of the game’s police stations, lining up motionless with their hands raised in a non-violent gesture of dissent.
