Rockstar has moved to take down multiple custom GTA Online missions for being themed around Charlie Kirk, who was murdered last year.
For years, the GTA series has been a poster child for controversial video games, thanks to their violent and sexual content, with the Hot Coffee incident being an especially infamous example.
Nowadays, though, the series garners far less public outrage and is more popular than ever, as evidenced by the overwhelming success of GTA 5 and the hype surrounding GTA 6.
The controversies definitely contributed to GTA’s success but nowadays Rockstar Games is more cautious about what kind of content it allows, especially if it’s made by fans.
In GTA Online, you can create your own missions for others to play, using the Rockstar Mission Creator tool. Recently, one fan decided to create a mission that replicates the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the right wing activist who was killed last September.
Footage of the mission, which was titled ‘We Are Charlie Kirk,’ went viral recently after it was shared to X by GTA6 Info. The mission involves you picking up a sniper rifle on a roof and shooting someone in an area made up to resemble a college campus. So be sure you want to see it before you click the link.
GTA6 Info claims that Rockstar had added ‘Charlie Kirk’ to GTA Online’s profanity filter and according to Kotaku, the mission can no longer be found when searching GTA Online’s list of custom missions.
As such, it appears that Rockstar has banned the mission, rendering it unavailable, or at least made it impossible for anyone to find and access it, but the studio has not issued a public statement on the matter.
This isn’t the first mission like this, as Kotaku states that it was able to find evidence of multiple Charlie Kirk themed missions being removed from the game.
Such missions are likely considered violations of Rockstar’s community guidelines, which forbids the ‘glorification or promotion of real-world terrorist, extremist, or criminal organisations and their ideologies.’
Whatever the case, this shouldn’t be especially surprising. Rockstar has taken down other related content for far less, such as fan mods that recreate older GTA games and even an attempt at recreating GTA 6’s map.
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Rockstar is currently embroiled in a studio related controversy. Last year, it fired over 30 staff members, claiming they had leaked sensitive info about GTA 6, but the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) alleges that this was actually an act of union busting.
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The IWGB did recently attempt to secure interim relief for the affected employees, but the Glasgow Employment Tribunal rejected all applications.
‘The Glasgow Employment Tribunal has rejected the union’s application for interim relief. We welcome the decision, which is consistent with Rockstar’s position throughout,’ says a Rockstar spokesperson.
‘We regret that we were put in a position where dismissals were necessary, but we stand by our course of action as supported by the outcome of this hearing.’
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