{"id":141193,"date":"2025-09-16T13:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/141193\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:20:06","slug":"jd-vance-backs-mass-doxing-campaign-to-find-and-harass-charlie-kirk-critics-charlie-kirk-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/141193\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance backs mass \u2018doxing\u2019 campaign to find and harass Charlie Kirk critics | Charlie Kirk shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mass \u201cdoxing\u201d effort to track down, intimidate and harass people perceived not to have sufficiently mourned the killing<\/a> of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk was endorsed<\/a> on Monday by JD Vance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The US vice-president guest-hosted Kirk\u2019s podcast on Monday and said that people who \u201csee someone celebrating Charlie\u2019s murder\u201d should \u201ccall them out\u201d. He added: \u201cHell, call their employer. We don\u2019t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past few days, numerous workers across various different fields ranging from colleges<\/a> to an airplane pilot have<\/a> been fired<\/a> for<\/a> their comments on Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

An anonymous website that began collecting reports of anti-Kirk \u201cpolitical extremism\u201d said it had received more than 63,000 submissions<\/a>. The website was originally named \u201cExpose Charlie\u2019s Murderers\u201d but rebranded Monday to the \u201cCharlie Kirk Data Foundation\u201d. The group has previously said it had been targeted by hackers and \u201cleftist attacks\u201d. Its website was down on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Trump allies have sought to link Kirk\u2019s killing \u2013 without evidence \u2013 to what they say is a coordinated leftwing \u201cterror\u201d<\/a> movement that supports political violence, funded by progressive and liberal charities. This has led to fears of a draconian crackdown on free speech.<\/p>\n

In his podcast, Vance said the administration would \u201cwork to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country\u201d.<\/p>\n

The vice-president was joined on Kirk\u2019s podcast by Stephen Miller, Trump\u2019s deputy chief of staff, who also vowed to crack down on what he called the \u201cvast domestic terrorist network\u201d he blamed for Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, homeland security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will happen, and we will do it in Charlie\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The political leanings of the shooter who killed Kirk are not yet clear, and the US has seen a wave of violence in recent years that has targeted both Democrats and Republicans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, the dragnet has also caught up those who have expressed criticism of the late commentator, a Christian nationalist with a history of sexist and racist speeches. Some have simply quoted Kirk\u2019s own words, or been accused of not adequately mourning his passing.<\/p>\n

One target was Army Lt Col Christopher Ladnier, who quoted Kirk on the day of his assassination. This included Kirk calling the Civil Rights Act a \u201cbeast\u201d that \u201chas now turned into an anti-white weapon\u201d, and his statement that some gun deaths are the cost of the second amendment.<\/p>\n

Republican-controlled states such as Florida, Oklahoma and Texas have launched investigations of teachers accused of inappropriate statements after last week\u2019s assassination. And the US military has invited members of the public to report those who \u201ccelebrate or mock\u201d the killing and said some troops have already been removed for their comments. A school district in Wisconsin reported receiving more than 800 messages after one conservative influencer mistakenly identified an associate principal at an elementary school as celebrating Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Calls for a crackdown by Vance and other Trump allies have invoked memories of some of the darkest chapters of US history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government involvement in this does inch this closer to looking like McCarthyism,\u201d said Adam Goldstein of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, referring to the 1950s campaign to root out communists that led to false allegations and ruined careers. \u201cIt was not a shining moment for free expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats have been victims of political violence recently, including the June assassination<\/a> of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and the 2022 beating<\/a> of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s husband in their San Francisco home.<\/p>\n

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mass \u201cdoxing\u201d effort to track down, intimidate and harass people perceived not to have sufficiently mourned the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-141193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}