The Washington Post recently obtained screenshots of Charlie Kirk’s accused assassin, , allegedly confessing to the crime on the messaging platform ‘Discord.’
FBI Director Kash Patel addressed the report Tuesday morning while testifying before the . He told lawmakers there are over 20 other users in the reported chat involving Robinson.
We’re also going to be investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat,” Patel said.
During his testimony on Tuesday, Patel confirmed the report from the Post, which obtained screenshots of what appears to be Robinson confessing to assassinating Kirk. The message reads, “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all.” Adding, “It was me at UVU yesterday. I’m sorry for all of this.” Before testifying, Patel appeared on Fox News on Monday, saying they’ve already contacted and connected with multiple people.
There are scores of individuals that are going to be spoken to. There are also lots of family members and friends that have already been spoken to,” Patel said on Fox & Friends.
Rajiv Garg, an information systems expert at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, told The National News Desk, Discord is a messaging platform with over 200 million monthly users, interacting through text, voice and audio. Adding, it’s particularly popular with gamers.
To have voice or video calls with each other or share text messages. Play games,” Garg said.
But unlike other messaging platforms, he says, Discord allows users more control. Community moderators mostly control privacy and security settings, along with those invited into communities called “servers.”
So users have a lot of control. Each individual user has a lot of control compared to the platform itself,” Garg said.
Aside from Robinson, Discord has been at the center of controversy in the past. Thomas Matthew Crooks, the attempted assassin of President Donald Trump, had an account on the Discord app. Plus, Payton Gendron, who carried out the 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, also had a private server on Discord, functioning as a diary.
Discord says it has not uncovered evidence that Robinson promoted violence on the platform. Its official policy also states it does not allow hateful conduct or the use of hate speech.
