Right-wing organizations are running a data collection campaign in the name of Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist killed last week. It’s not yet clear what they plan to use it for.
Monday, filling in as the guest-host on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Vice President JD Vance, in between misrepresenting what Kirk said and scolding Americans for quoting Kirk in the wake of his death, called on his followers to join the right-wing Turning Point USA organization Kirk had led. He also called on his followers to report anyone who doesn’t respond to Kirk’s death in line with Vance’s preferences.
“When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out. And hell, call their employer,” Vance said.
Right-wing activists, however, were way ahead of the vice president.
The self-fashioned Charlie Kirk Foundation is an account and website that cropped up in the days after Kirk was shot and killed on September 10. The organization, which has rapidly accrued more than 100,000 followers on X made its first post on September 12, saying “Send all evidence of extremists celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death to our website and email. Link in bio.”
The organization appears to be the most organized outgrowth of the right’s efforts to doxx anyone seen as making light of Kirk’s death. Last week, conservatives erupted into one of the largest doxxing and cancelation efforts online.
Activists like Chaya Raichik, who posts under the moniker “Libs of TikTok,” began posting personal information about people making insensitive comments about Kirk’s death while claiming to have contacted some of these people’s employers to report their online activity.
Now, right-wing activists purporting to be tracking political extremism are collecting huge amounts of data about their political opponents while spouting far-right rhetoric themselves.
The so-called Charlie Kirk Foundation, for instance, is calling “The Left” and “everyday normal Democrats” an “existential threat” while retweeting calls from far-right activist Laura Loomer to “rid America of the trans movement.”
While the group did not respond to a request for comment and has not identified who is behind the organization, they do claim the “people behind this are political operatives that have represented major parties and candidates” and that there are “Big Tech data scientists, analysts, and engineers working on this project.”
They also claim to have over 60,000 “data entries,” referring to what they call “confirmed identities.” However, it’s not yet clear what they plan on doing with the data they’re collecting. Critics have also noted that some of these entries include people who condemned Kirk’s killing.
While it’s not clear what these anonymous activists plan to do with their database, it is clear that the federal government has already followed suit. President Donald Trump told the Associated Press on Sunday that many people on the left, whom he referred to as “scum,” were “already under investigation.”
Stephen Miller, a top adviser to the president, also said in a Fox News appearance that his political opponents would have “to live in exile” and threatened to weaponize law enforcement against them.
“The power of law enforcement, under President Trump’s will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power and if you’ve broken the law, to take away your freedom,” Miller said.
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