Following the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk one month ago today, Wikipedia editors responded by smearing Kirk across multiple articles even as tens of millions viewed the pages and high-level site leaders monitored them. Such smears included editors labeling Kirk far-right both openly and surreptitiously, in one case prompting Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to call Wikipedia “wicked” on social media. Editors also advocated labeling Trumpism as fascism in response.

Just one month ago, Kirk was assassinated at the start of his latest college campus tour by a suspected left-wing shooter. On Wikipedia, the immediate response of numerous editors was to start smearing Kirk and denigrating him as initially reported by Ashley Rindsberg at Fox News. This has included editors spreading lies and mocking his apparent last words. Such efforts happened even as site co-founder Jimmy Wales himself commented on Kirk’s page with members of the site’s Arbitration Committee, often likened to a Supreme Court, editing the page. Editors also sought to smear Kirk’s memorial service held on September 21 or to delete its page entirely

Views on Kirk’s page alone ventured into the tens of millions after his assassination, which disseminated smears far more widely than normal. This allowed the site’s cadre of left-wing activist editors to define Kirk’s memory and legacy at a critical moment in the nation’s modern political history. As commentator Tucker Carlson noted in his recent interview of site co-founder Larry Sanger about his proposed reform of the site, Wikipedia shapes America and people’s collective memory, which includes shaping Kirk’s legacy in the minds of millions.

Labeling Kirk “Far-Right”

How to describe Kirk politically has been of particular focus with left-wing editors pushing more negative and inflammatory descriptions. Editor “Tataral” edited Kirk’s page two days after the assassination to label him a “conspiracy theorist” and “far-right” in the first line. Tataral describes herself as critical of President Donald Trump and progressive by American standards, boasting about creating the page on Trump’s mug shot.