Charlie Kirk killing revives questions about radicalisation and gaming culture

Many vulnerable young men are drawn to online gaming platforms, making these places attractive for recruitment and spreading extreme views.

- Matthew Sharpe

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah man suspected of having fatally shot right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, is reportedly not cooperating with the authorities.

He was apprehended after a more than two-day manhunt and is being held without bail at the Utah County Jail.

While a motive for the shooting has yet to be established, Utah Governor Spencer Cox has highlighted Robinson’s links to gaming and the “dark internet”.

Bullet casings found at the scene were inscribed with various messages evoking gaming subcultures. One of the quotes - “Notices bulges, OwO what’s this” - can be linked to the furry community, known for role-playing using animal avatars.

Another message - “Hey, fascist! Catch! 1.11” - features arrow symbols associated with an action that allows players to drop bombs on their foes in Helldivers 2, a game in which players play as fascists fighting enemy forces.

One casing reads “O Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Ciao, ciao!” - words from an Italian anti-Mussolini protest song, which appears in the shooter game Far Cry 6. Yet another is a homophobic jibe: “If you read this you are gay LMAO.”

If Robinson does turn out to be a shooter radicalised through online gaming spaces, he would not be the first. Previous terrorist shootings in Christchurch (New Zealand), Halle (Germany), Baerum (Norway), and the US cities of Buffalo, El Paso and Poway were all carried out by radicalised young men who embraced online conspiracies and violent video games.

In each of these cases, the shooter attempted (and in all but the Poway shooting, succeeded) to live-stream the atrocities, as though emulating a first-person shooter game.