Charlie Kirk’s Death and the Internet We’ve Built
Kirk’s assassination marks a grim turning point, underscoring the stakes of Big Tech’s choices and our own.
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The tragic death of far-right activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday has to be the most "extremely online" political assassination in U.S. history.
Vox Media's excellent tech podcast Pivot used that colorful phrase to describe the suspect arrested in connection with Kirk's shooting. The hosts referred to the 22-year-old suspect's alleged use of internet memes, Discord messaging, and gaming platforms, as well as the likelihood he was radicalized on the internet.
OK. But I think we could take things even a few notches further.
Kirk himself grew his massive following entirely online, including through a podcast and social posts that often exhibited an incendiary tone of their own. The young people who turned out to see Kirk in person Wednesday no doubt connected with his content online. And to the extent that politicians have said some needlessly provocative things since Kirk's death, those messages are primarily spreading online, risking further escalation of political violence elsewhere in the U.S.
In other words, we've never really seen an event quite like this. And it raises some very tech-specific questions we need to wrestle with.
For instance: What sort of internet do we really want to build, together? And how do we make that vision happen, even in spite of Big Tech profiteering and other interests that work against actual users?
Believe it or not, I still hold out hope it's possible to create some version of the internet that's a more constructive force for its users, and for society at large. But we have to be very intentional about it, in at least equal measure to the intentionality of the people who have made the shitty parts, the social networks that have become utter cesspools, and so on.
Frankly, I deeply disagree with a lot of what Charlie Kirk had to say in life. But that's OK.
In America, we should be able to disagree without anyone getting shot. It absolutely sickens me that Charlie Kirk was, and I hope we'll make whatever changes necessary so it never happens to anyone else, regardless of their politics, ever again.
Bitcoin.com is doing a crypto fundraiser for Charlie Kirk's family. They're taking donations in seven different tokens, in recognition of both Charlie's enthusiasm for crypto during his lifetime and the profound loss his wife and children have recently suffered. If you're able, please donate here.
Five Things: Sept. 7-13, 2025
The week's top headlines about emerging technologies and trends reshaping the web:
- The Ethereum Foundation announced a plan for implementing end-to-end privacy on the organization's namesake blockchain network. The new roadmap includes advancements in Layer-2 solutions, private remote procedure calls, and confidential decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to enhance Ethereum's role in settling global financial transactions. (The Block)
- Publicly listed SharpLink Gaming, a major holder of ether tokens, began a $1.5 billion share buyback. The program could have a major ripple effect on crypto markets as traders arbitrage the stock-market valuation of SharpLink versus the ETH token price. But Wall Street estimates vary widely as to where the equilibrium lies.
- Nasdaq has proposed a rule change to U.S. securities regulators that would allow tokenized versions of listed stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to trade alongside their traditional counterparts. If approved, the change would introduce blockchain-based settlement to America's national market system, which is used by millions of investors everyday. (The Block)
- OpenAI is facing growing opposition from California's regulators and philanthropic groups over its plan to restructure as a for-profit company. Critics are concerned the move could violate the state's charitable trust law and prioritize profit over OpenAI's mission to create AI for the public benefit. (Wall Street Journal)
- AlterEgo, a Boston startup, has unveiled what it calls a "near-telepathic" wearable device that enables users to communicate silently with computers by detecting faint neuromuscular signals in the face and throat when a person internally verbalizes words." (Decrypt)
Market Snapshot
A quick look at some major indicators as of Friday's close on Wall Street:
| Indicator | Close | Weekly | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | $116,442.00 | +4.3% | +24.1% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 24,092.19 | +1.9% | +14.7% |
| Gold | $3,686.40/oz | +0.9% | +40.2% |
| USD Index | 97.61 | -0.1% | -10.0% |
| 10-yr U.S. Treasury Yield |
4.061% | -0.025 | -0.512 |
Looking Ahead
- Mashable's Matt Binder explored the possibility that Google might soon replace its venerable search interface at google.com with the company's AI Mode feature. Such a change could have serious implications for the broader internet, including traffic referrals to site publishers.
- My former Wall Street Journal colleague Greg Ip is worried that popular AI apps' incessant remixing of existing knowledge might lead in the long term to fewer real breakthroughs that produce new knowledge. For example, there are already signs of declining human contributions to knowledge-sharing sites like StackOverflow and Wikipedia. Hmmm...
- Fortune just published a couple of good reads about how AI is transforming American higher education, by firsthand witnesses. Bentley University lecturer Jeff LeBlanc says his students are facing the prospect of a post-graduation job market upended by AI with "a blend of pragmatism and fatalism that feels uniquely Gen Z." Meanwhile, Stanford computer science professor Jure Leskovec says he turned to traditional in-person paper exams for his 400-student classes two years ago to counter AI-fueled shortcuts on take-home assignments. Perhaps even more surprising: The students requested the change.
Odds & Ends
- Astronomers at Arizona State University now believe that Oumuamua, a mysterious interstellar object that passed into our solar system in 2017, was a giant sheet of nitrogen ice. They say it may have broken off from a Pluto-like exoplanet. (Space.com)
- The startup Alef Aeronautics has begun testing flying cars at two San Francisco Bay Area airports. (KTVU)
That's it for now. Thanks for reading the newsletter today! If you want to know more about w3w's history and (ahem) the author, that info is available here.
If you need to reach me directly, please email peter[at]w3w[dot]media.
Best wishes for a healthy and productive week ahead. 😊