US House panel asks online forum CEOs to testify after Charlie Kirk assassination

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. House committee on Wednesday asked the CEOs of online platforms Discord, Steam, Amazon-owned Twitch and Reddit to testify at an October 8 hearing following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, citing the “radicalization of online forum users.”

Kirk, 31, co-founder of the conservative student movement Turning Point USA and a key ally of President Donald Trump, was speaking at an event attended by about 3,000 people when he was gunned down last week.

“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,” Republican Representative James Comer, chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter to the four companies.

Discord said it welcomed the opportunity to testify. “We continuously engage with policymakers on these critical issues and look forward to continuing this important dialogue next month,” a company spokesperson said.

Reddit said it is continuing to investigate but has not yet found evidence that the suspect in Kirk’s death was active on Reddit. The company added it “has strong policies against hateful content and content that incites, encourages, glorifies or calls for violence.”

The other companies did not respond to requests for comment.

“The hearing will examine radicalization of online forum users, including incidents of open incitement to commit violent politically motivated acts,” the letter to the companies said.

Roughly two out of three Americans believe that harsh rhetoric common in politics is encouraging violence, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the days following Kirk’s murder.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler)