Grand Theft Auto bosses have banned any mention of Charlie Kirk in online multiplayer game GTA: Online.
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Last year, a new update for Grand Theft Auto Online let users create their own missions within the sandbox game, before sharing them for others to play. Soon after, a number of player-created missions that recreated the assassination of Charlie Kirk went live.
Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist, was shot in the neck and killed at Utah Valley University campus last September while hosting the first night of his America Comeback Tour.
Rockstar Games swiftly removed several of these missions, including the viral ‘We Are Charlie Kirk’, but bosses have now added Charlie Kirk to the game’s profanity filter. Searching for the name on the ingame job site produces the same error message as racial slurs or swear words. However players are reportedly bypassing the filter by tweaking the spelling of Charlie Kirk.
Rockstar Games has added the term “Charlie Kirk” to the profanity filter in GTA Online after someone created this mission: pic.twitter.com/oEubYl6TG6
— GTA 6 Info (@GTASixInfo) January 12, 2026
According to a report from Variety, Rockstar are planning on rebranding and reworking the profanity filter so real world events can be reported and restricted in the future.
Some players have praised the decision to remove the “insensitive” and “shocking” content, however others aren’t impressed. “The game has an entire side story about assassinating prominent business and political figures to manipulate the stock markets,” wrote one Reddit user. “The ‘fuck your feelings’ crowd has a lot of feelings as it turns out,” added another. “It’s funny to me because old GTA would have done a parody of this in their next game,” said a third.
Following Kirk’s murder, a classic South Park episode that mocked the activist was removed from broadcast even though Kirk found his depiction “hilarious” and Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from hosting his late night talk show after making fun of Donald Trump’s apparent indifference to the killing.
Earlier this month, it was claimed that Grand Theft Auto 6 still isn’t finished. The follow-up to 2013’s GTA 5 was delayed for a second time last year, with Rockstar saying they needed more time to “polish” the game. However, a new report says developers are “still finalising levels and missions, and seeing what is going to make it into the game.” Grand Theft Auto 6 is due to launch November 19, 2026.
In other news, new Lara Croft voice actor Alix Wilton Regan has quit Twitter over AI deepfakes made using X’s own Grok tool.
The post ‘Grand Theft Auto Online’ bans any mention of Charlie Kirk appeared first on NME.
