Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
Utah governor Spencer Cox said that social media has played a “direct role” in fuelling political violence in the US, as the country grapples with the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college in the state last week.
“I believe that social media has played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt that we have seen over the last five, six years,” Cox said on Sunday.
Cox, a Republican, has spoken out strongly against social media companies in the wake of the killing and has likened the addictive nature of their algorithms to drugs. “It took us a decade to realise how evil these algorithms are,” he said.
In an interview on Sunday with NBC News’ Meet The Press, Cox said that the suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson, had not been co-operating with the authorities.
But the investigation and interviews with the 22-year-old’s friends and family had painted a picture of a “very normal young man” who had been “radicalised” online and held a “leftist ideology”, Cox said.
Robinson was in a romantic relationship with a roommate who was transitioning from male to female, the governor said, adding that the individual had been co-operating with the investigation and did not have any knowledge of the planned attack.
Further details are expected to be revealed on Tuesday, when charges in the case against Robinson will be filed, the Utah governor said.
The governor’s remarks regarding social media were echoed by Utah senator John Curtis, a fellow Republican.
“I think we have to look really hard at what’s just occupying nearly 100 per cent of brain weight of not just the youth but of all generations,” Curtis said on ABC news on Sunday. “There’s just zero liability for what people are putting out there,” he said.
The assassination has been condemned by both Republicans and Democrats, who have expressed outrage at political violence in the US, which has affected both parties.
But it has also sparked calls for retribution from some conservatives, who have sought to blame the left for escalating tensions in the country.
Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday night that “when you look at the agitators — you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place — that’s the left, not the right”.
Billionaire Elon Musk said on Saturday that “the left is the party of murder and celebrating murder,” as he spoke via video link to a rally in the UK organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
In an appearance on Fox News, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller pledged to crack down on leftwing organisations accused of fomenting violence.
“We are going to do what it takes to dismantle the organisations and the entities that are fomenting riots, that are doxxing, that are trying to inspire terrorism,” Miller said.
Kirk played a significant role in rallying young people to vote for Donald Trump, and was close to the president’s family. On Sunday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said that Kirk’s murder was seen as an attack on a political movement. “That’s the way most Republicans see this,” Graham said.
Calls by Republican officials for greater scrutiny of social media companies in the wake of the killing come as the Trump administration has taken the EU to task over regulation that requires tech companies to take on more responsibility policing hate speech and disinformation on their platforms.
Republicans have characterised the legislation, the Digital Services Act, as an assault on free speech.
