Rockstar Video games appears to be enjoying cat-and-mouse with some Grand Theft Auto On-line gamers who’re utilizing newly added instruments to recreate the assassination of Charlie Kirk within the extraordinarily standard on-line open-world crime simulator.
In September of final yr, right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk was shot within the neck and killed throughout a public look at a school in Utah. Within the weeks that adopted, many individuals, together with Jimmy Kimmel, discovered themselves in hassle for commenting or joking about it. Some even misplaced their jobs. Then, in December, proper earlier than the brand new yr, Rockstar added a mission creator to GTA On-line, letting gamers make their very own solo missions. And it didn’t take lengthy for some creators to begin recreating Kirk’s killing in GTA On-line, resulting in an ongoing scenario the place it appears Rockstar is making an attempt (and failing) to cease these assassination-themed missions from spreading.
Rockstar Video games has added the time period “Charlie Kirk” to the profanity filter in GTA On-line after somebody created this mission: pic.twitter.com/oEubYl6TG6
— GTA 6 Data (@GTASixInfo) January 12, 2026
On January 12, the Twitter account GTA 6Info posted a clip of what seems to be a user-created GTA On-line mission known as “We Are Charlie Kirk” that options the participant being tasked with killing a person standing exterior behind numerous props in a location that appears like a school campus. As soon as the person is killed, the mission is accomplished. GTA 6Info additionally claimed within the tweet that due to this mission, Rockstar Video games has now added “Charlie Kirk” to GTA On-line’s profanity filter. The tweet went viral, but it surely’s unclear if Rockstar did, actually, add Kirk’s identify to any such filter and if that exact mission is the rationale.
Kotaku has contacted Rockstar Video games for extra info.
Nonetheless, whereas Kotaku can’t affirm the precise declare in that tweet, it could actually confirm that when you attempt to seek for “Charlie Kirk” on the official customized jobs website for GTA On-line, you’ll be greeted with an error no matter which platform you decide. This additionally occurs when you attempt to seek for a slur or different vulgar time period blocked by Rockstar. You may nonetheless seek for Charlie or Kirk individually, and doing so will reveal that beforehand shared Kirk-themed maps, just like the one from that viral video, appear to have been faraway from GTA On-line someday between December 10, when the mission creator device was added to the sport, and at present. Gamers look like utilizing “Charlie Pink” or mashing his first and final names collectively to attempt to get round what look like Rockstar’s try and make it a lot tougher to search out and share these missions.
The query now’s whether or not Rockstar Video games will proceed to play cat-and-mouse with creators making an attempt to construct and share recreations of Kirk’s homicide. And in that case, for the way lengthy will this pattern proceed within the live-service sport? If I do know the web, Rockstar has a tough job forward of it, particularly as rumors of a banned subject unfold on-line and entice extra creators to strive their luck at getting round any attainable filters. We noticed one thing like this occur in NBA 2K26 final yr, with gamers utilizing the in-game creator instruments to create bloody characters referencing the killing.
