Steam, Discord, Twitch, and Reddit CEOs called to appear in Congress after Charlie Kirk shooting
The CEOs of Discord, Steam, Twitch, and Reddit have been called to testify in front of the United States Congress after the Charlie Kirk killing. This is part of a hearing that seeks to examine "the radicalization of online forum users," including "instances of open incitement to commit politically motivated acts."
Announced yesterday, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer issued the invitation. The call to the CEOs mentions the "politically motivated assassination" of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was shot on September 10 while addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
"In the wake of this tragedy, and amid other acts of politically motivated violence, Congress has a duty to oversee the online platforms that radicals have used to advance political violence," Comer said. "To prevent future radicalization and violence, the CEOs of Discord, Steam, Twitch, and Reddit must appear before the Oversight Committee and explain what actions they will take to ensure their platforms are not exploited for nefarious purposes."
The letters, available alongside the press release, are addressed to Discord CEO Humam Sakhnini, Valve president Gabe Newell, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. The hearing will take place on Wednesday, October 8. Congress is asking the executives to provide a written testimony at least two business days prior to the hearing. Executives will have an opportunity to provide five-minute opening statements before being questioned by the Committee.
Jokes inscribed on bullets and Discord messages have led to scrutiny of the suspect's online activityDuring a press conference after the arrest of Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah native who was identified by federal law enforcement as a suspect in the murder of Kirk, officials said that several bullet casings recovered from a hunting rifle found near the crime scene had messages inscribed on them. The messages apparently written by the alleged shooter seemed to reference online memes and video game references. (Thanks, Wired).
One of them seemed to be a reference to an in-game command in Helldivers 2, the cooperative shooter by developer Arrowhead Game Studios that was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment last year.
Helldivers 2 isn't the only game under the Sony umbrella to be part of the conversation surrounding Kirk's shooting. Early this week, Sony subsidiary Sucker Punch Productions appeared to have fired senior texture artist Drew Harrison over posts made on Bluesky in which the artist joked about the killing.
Harrison is not the only developer spotlighted by a growing far-right campaign targeting individuals who spoke negatively about Kirk after his killing. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Activision Blizzard parent company Microsoft stated it was investigating posts by "a small subset of our employees regarding recent events."
This isn't the first time in recent history that Discord has been put in the spotlight following a high-profile killing. In 2022 it and Destiny 2 developer Bungie faced scrutiny after Payton Gendron killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY.
Payton had briefly streamed the attack on Twitch, and communicated about his plans to commit the attack on Discord and in Destiny 2. A jury found that Gendron had targeted the grocery store in a deliberate assault on the Black population of the surrounding community.
As of this writing, Robinson's motivations for allegedly shooting Kirk appear to be murkier, though messages released by the Department of Justice appear to show him telling his roommate that he "had enough" of Kirk's "hatred." As CNN notes, the texts do not specify what form of hatred Robinson was referring to.
