Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced this week that he is expanding the ongoing investigation into Discord, an online chat platform, after it was reportedly used by Charlie Kirk's assassin.
Kirk, who was fatally shot on September 10th at Utah Valley University, was allegedly killed by Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old who is the prime suspect in the fatal shooting.
“I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with the Trump Administration to root out and defeat nihilistic violent extremism in all its forms,” Attorney General Paxton said in a statement. “Discord has chosen to allow extremist content, sexual exploitation, and addiction to flourish on its platform.”
“Attorney General Paxton concluded by calling it “a legal obligation to prevent minors from being exposed to these evils, but instead its actions have contributed to the growing wave of nihilistic violence all across our nation.”
Last year, Attorney General Paxton launched an investigation into the privacy and safety practices for minors of companies like Discord, Reddit, Character.AI, Instagram, and others.
The expanded Civil Investigative Demand (CID) now focuses on extremist content, the sexual exploitation of minors by grooming gangs, the platform’s addictive design features, and its connection to recent acts of violence.
In a press release announcing the investigation’s expansion, the attorney general affirmed that his “investigation will examine the content on Discord’s platform and its role in contributing to the radicalization, sexual exploitation, and addiction of minors.”
Discord, which hosts millions of users across thousands of online communities, has been at the center of controversy after Kirk's reported shooter appeared to have confessed to the shooting through the media platform. The alleged shooter is reported to have sent a message admitting, "it was me at UVU yesterday. I'm sorry for all of this."
Discord has not yet issued a public response to the expanded investigation.
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