‘Civil War’ Mentions Surge Online After Kirk Assassination

Minutes after the shooting of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday, calls for civil war began appearing online.

The term “civil war” was mentioned on Wednesday more than 129,000 times on the social platform X, according to an analysis by The New York Times. On Thursday, it was mentioned at least 210,000 times. That was up from a daily average of around 18,000 in previous months. Many of the posts that included the phrase were reposted on other platforms, including Truth Social, TikTok and Instagram.

The talk of civil war came largely from Republican lawmakers, right-wing media personalities and conservative podcasters, according to a review by The Times. Some questioned whether America was already engaged in a civil war over its values, while others called for violence after Mr. Kirk’s death.

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The term “civil war” began rising this week with right-wing personalities and influencers and Republican members of Congress. On Wednesday, Representative Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin posted on X: “The left and their policies are leading America into a civil war. And they want it.”

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Elon Musk, X’s owner and the most-followed person on the platform, had one of the most widely shared and liked posts evoking war after Mr. Kirk’s death.

“If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is fight or die,” he wrote. His post was viewed more than 1.7 million times and liked over 37,000 times.

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