Over thirty people across the country have been fired, put on leave, investigated or faced calls to resign because of social media posts criticizing Charlie Kirk or expressing schadenfreude about the conservative influencer's assassination earlier this week, according to an analysis by NPR.
And more may be to come: some GOP lawmakers and officials are signaling their readiness to punish people for their speech. Conservative activists are collecting and publicizing social media posts and profiles that they say "celebrated" his death and are calling for them to lose their jobs.
"If they have their picture on their profile, even without a name, download the picture and reverse image search it," posted right-wing influencer Joey Mannarino. "Cross-reference it with their LinkedIn profile and find their place of employment. Call the place of employment, leave Google reviews."
Some Republican elected officials, along with right-wing influencers with large followings, including Laura Loomer and Libs of TikTok, the account run by activist Chaya Raichik, shared screenshots of offending posts and demanded action.
NPR has compiled a list from news reports of 33 people who have lost their jobs or are under investigations over their posts as of Friday. Most were public school teachers, with at least 21 educators in school districts across the country fired, put on administrative leave or placed under investigation by their employers. Firefighters, members of the military, a sports reporter, an employee of the Carolina Panthers and a city council official in Indiana have faced similar treatment or calls to resign.
Among the earliest and most prominent firings was MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd, a former Republican political consultant to President George W. Bush. As news of a shooting at a Kirk event began to spread, Dowd made comments on live television that soon after attracted widespread backlash from conservatives.
In his appearance on MSNBC, Dowd first noted that no details were known at that time, then speculated whether it was a supporter who fired the gun in "celebration." Dowd went on to say Kirk was "constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions."
He continued, "You can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place. And that's the unfortunate environment we are in." After Dowd's comment, the host confirmed that Kirk was shot.
Some of Kirk's rhetoric was incendiary. He questioned the intellectual capabilities of women and black people, said that some gun deaths were worth it to have the Second Amendment, asserted the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and cast immigrants and transgender people as threats.
Kirk's death was made public later that day, and Dowd's firing was made public that evening.
Dowd later apologized and clarified his comments. He wrote in a newsletter Friday that at the time he was speaking, he had not known that Kirk had been the target of the shooting or that he had been shot.
"The Right Wing media mob ginned up, went after me on a plethora of platforms, and MSNBC reacted to that mob," Dowd wrote.
The result of the social media frenzy over commentary about Kirk's death is that some people who "want to go down that path of debating the things that he stood for are essentially being silenced," said David Kaye, a law professor of law focusing on international human rights, the internet and free speech at the University of California, Irvine.
Kaye said first and foremost, political violence has no place in a democracy and people who celebrate such events are wrong to do so.
But he said at the same time, "I don't think that in a democracy we can clamp down on people engaging in debate over the legacy of somebody who was killed."
What did people say?
While online battles around social media posts have arisen in other murders or attempted murders of public figures in recent years, the campaign this time around appears more intense, in part due to a website, set up anonymously, called Expose Charlie's Murderers. The site corrals social media posts and the names, locations and employment of people deemed to have been "celebrating Charlie's death." No one behind the site responded to NPR's request for comment.
As of Friday morning, the site featured over 40 people, and the organizers claim that it "is being converted into a mass searchable database of over 20,000 entries." WIRED reported that some of the people featured on the homepage have received death threats.
"I'm so sorry President Trump, but the unemployment numbers next month in the jobs report are going to be very high," Loomer wrote on X on Thursday evening.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., called for the immediate firing of multiple people in her state. "This person should be ashamed of her post. She should be removed from her position," Blackburn wrote in an X post about an assistant dean at Middle Tennessee State University.
According to screenshots Blackburn shared, the assistant dean wrote on Facebook: "Looks like ol' Charlie spoke his fate into existence. Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy." The assistant dean was fired, according to USA Today.
The comments that led to investigations appeared to range widely in tone and content.
A teacher under investigation in Oklahoma wrote, "Charlie Kirk died the same way he lived: bringing out the worst in people," according to a local ABC affiliate.
A teacher in Texas wrote on Facebook, "Could this have been the consequences of his actions catching up with him?" and "#karma is a b*tch," along with other posts critical of Kirk's views, according to screenshots shared by Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain. Cain called for the teacher to be fired, but their employment status is unknown, according to Houston Public Media.
Another teacher in Naples, NY, likened Kirk to a Nazi and allegedly wrote, among other things, "Good riddance to bad garbage," according to screenshots shared by Libs of TikTok.
"We have heard from many community members regarding concerns and outrage related to these posts," Kevin Swartz, the superintendent of Naples Central School District wrote on Facebook. "I want to be very direct in saying to you that all of your voices have been heard."
Florida's Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas denounced teachers who posted "despicable comments" about Kirk's assassination and vowed to investigate them.
A now-deleted Instagram comment allegedly written by a New Orleans firefighter read, "I think he should be forced to carry that bullet in his body. That bullet has a right to be there because it's a gift from god," according to screenshots shared by Libs of TikTok.
The state's attorney general then reshared the Libs of TikTok post, calling for "consequences" and tagged the New Orleans Fire Department.
The department has launched an investigation, according to a local NBC affiliate.
NPR reached out to multiple people who had been identified in news reports as losing their jobs due to their social media posts but they declined to comment on the record, citing fears about their safety and death threats they have received.
Republicans in power lean in
Lawmakers and officials at the state and federal levels also vowed to use their positions to punish anyone appearing to celebrate Kirk's death.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau indicated his office might revoke the U.S. visas of foreign nationals over their social media remarks about Kirk's murder. "I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action," Landau posted. "Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention."
"I am aware of posts displaying contempt toward a fellow American who was assassinated," Navy Secretary John Phelan warned. "Any uniformed or civilian employee of the Department of the Navy who acts in a manner that brings discredit upon the Department, the @USNavy or the @USMC will be dealt with swiftly and decisively."
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., posted on X that he planned to "use Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination," in a marked departure from the Republican Party's stance in the past several years which has equated content moderation with censorship.
"I'm also going after their business licenses and permitting, their businesses will be blacklisted aggressively, they should be kicked from every school, and their drivers licenses should be revoked," he wrote.
Loretta Ross, a community activist and Smith College professor who researches authoritarian movements, told NPR that Kirk's assassination was a tragedy that is now being used to clamp down on free speech.
She referenced the McCarthy period, when "people were punished, fired, blacklisted for having opinions that the government didn't like," and warned against an overreaction.
"It's really sad and tragic that someone's passing just becomes another way to further an agenda that further divides us."
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