A U.S. House committee has called on the CEOs of a number of online platforms to testify at Congress following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer asked the bosses of Discord, Steam, Twitch, and Reddit to testify at a hearing scheduled for October 8, citing the “radicalization of online forum users.”
Kirk, an ally of President Trump, was fatally shot at a Utah university on Wednesday, September 10. His alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, 22, appeared to take responsibility for the shooting on Discord, a company spokesperson confirmed to the BBC.
According to the spokesperson, Robinson messaged friends in a chat on Discord hours before he was arrested last week in connection with Kirk’s shooting. “It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this,” reads a message from an account that allegedly belongs to Robinson, the BBC reported. Robinson has since appeared in court charged with aggravated murder.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said the hearing “will examine the radicalization of online forum users, including instances of open incitement to commit politically motivated acts.”
“The politically motivated assassination of Charlie Kirk claimed the life of a husband, father, and American patriot,” commented Chairman Comer.
“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. 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.”
Individual letters were sent to Humam Sakhnini, CEO of Discord, Gabe Newell, President of Steam owner Valve, Dan Clancy, CEO of Amazon-owned Twitch, and Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit.
Newell and co will provide their written testimony at least two business days prior to the hearing, and will have the chance to provide a five-minute opening statement prior to answering questions posed by Members.
Discord told Reuters 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,” it said. Reddit insisted it has not yet found evidence that Robinson was active on its platform, adding it “has strong policies against hateful content and content that incites, encourages, glorifies or calls for violence.”
IGN has asked Valve and Twitch for comment.
In November, Mark Warner, the U.S. senator from Virginia, wrote an open letter to Newell to demand Valve crack down on what he called “hateful accounts and rhetoric proliferating on Steam.”
Warner alleged that Steam was home to tens of thousands of groups that “share and amplify antisemitic, Nazi, sexuality or gender-based hate, and white supremacist content,” and called on Valve “to bring its content moderation standards in line with industry standards and crack down on the rampant proliferation of hate-based content.”
Photo by Olly Curtis/Future Publishing via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
