One year ago, Charlie Kirk was shot dead; the British government immediately got to work. Following Kirk’s murder, the Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), a UK government counter-extremism and anti-terrorism unit, began monitoring thousands of social media channels, gauging the reaction of what they describe as “Extreme Right-Wing” (ERW) activists.
RICU has stirred controversy over its role in coordinating ‘controlled spontaneity’ campaigns in the aftermath of terrorist attacks
Published here for the first time, a memo written by RICU reveals that officials assessed that “Extreme Right-Wing” activists, including Tommy Robinson, would use Kirk’s assassination to “push pro-free speech narratives.” Counter-extremism agents assessed that right-wing extremists would use Kirk’s death to “encourage more radical action” and “abandon political moderation in favor of more radical political stances.” Meanwhile, RICU characterized the left-wing online response to Kirk’s assassination as “moderate” and largely “factual reporting,” despite thousands of people celebrating the shooting. RICU’s response to Kirk’s murder has drawn criticism from prominent free speech campaigners, including the Free Speech Union, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the US State Department.
A memo entitled “RICU Event Response: Charlie Kirk Assassination” was circulated across Whitehall, including to officials in the Home Office, Foreign Office and Cabinet Office, as well as police officers, on September 11, 2025, the day after Kirk was shot. The memo was classified as “Official Sensitive.” RICU assessed that American and British ERW audiences would present the murder as “a shared attack on the ERW movement and free speech activism more generally,” and monitored the response of Turning Point UK, the British arm of Charlie Kirk’s American organization.
“There is nothing ‘extreme’ about ‘pushing pro free speech narratives,’” said Sarah Rogers, the United States Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, who served as Kirk’s attorney on First Amendment issues and has led the Trump administration’s advocacy against censorship in Europe. “That’s why censorship by governments proves so unpopular.”
Rogers added that in her judgment, the RICU report showed “blind spots” which “regrettably were not unique to the UK,” pointing to now-discredited intelligence products rescinded by the CIA “show the same biases.” “Most glaringly, the memo describes the ‘leftist’ response as ‘moderate,’ despite describing the same leftists as ‘celebratory’ of Charlie’s murder,” said Rogers.
RICU is a government unit based in the Home Office that monitors and analyzes terrorist and extremist content and supports government counter-terrorism communications. Founded in 2007, RICU has stirred controversy over its role in coordinating “controlled spontaneity” campaigns in the aftermath of terrorist attacks, including pre-planned messaging, vigils and demonstrations intended to shape the public’s response to terrorism.
For example, after an ISIS terrorist attack in 2014, RICU created an image of a Muslim woman wearing a hijab printed with the British flag, which was subsequently published on the front page of the Sun and other British newspapers. The image was created because, according to a leaked document from the company RICU commissioned to make the image, “the UK authorities wanted to challenge ultraconservative and misogynistic interpretations of Islam.”
Following major terrorist events, RICU analyzes tens of thousands of social media channels to monitor the responses of those it classes as extremists. Charlie Kirk’s assassination prompted a RICU response, investigating messages from “Extreme Right-Wing” (ERW), “Left-Wing and Single Issue” (LASI), and “UK Islamist Terrorist Supporters” (UK-ITS).
The memo reveals that RICU identified 2,000 posts from what it described as global “ERW audiences” discussing Kirk’s assassination, with most appearing within an hour of the attack. Officials described the reaction as “highly emotionally charged.” “The dominant narrative within the ERW attributes responsibility for the assassination to the ‘political left’ and claims that it is part of a broader campaign of violence against conservatives and White Christians,” the memo stated.
Lorcán Price, an Irish barrister and legal counsel for the free speech legal advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom, said: “RICU is a shadowy government unit, which previously faced stringent criticism for being part of a network of state agencies that spied on critics of government policy, including journalists and politicians, during the Covid pandemic.” Price said there was a “concerning pattern of behavior” from the British state following acts of terrorism, violence and other major events, involving attempts to control public debate within “narrow, pre-defined and often ideological confines.”
“This memo clearly shows that RICU was monitoring lawful speech from British citizens raising reasonable concerns – such as that left-wing accounts celebrated Mr Kirk’s murder online,” he added. Price called on the Home Office to disclose how the memo was used and whether there had been “an effort to control and censor public narratives surrounding Mr Kirk’s murder.”
He also criticized what he described as a “clear two-tier approach” to the way RICU classified groups on the political left and right. “‘Extreme Right-Wing’ is used as a label, whereas those on the left are called ‘Left-Wing and Single Issue’ – not extreme – including some who celebrated Mr Kirk’s murder,” he said. “To celebrate the murder of any human being is extreme by any reasonable definition.”
RICU monitored claims that “leftists” and Muslims were “gleefully celebrating” Kirk’s murder, while other users promoted conspiracy theories suggesting his assassination was a pre-planned “deep-state ‘hit.’” Officials recorded social media accounts sharing tributes from prominent Americans, including President Donald Trump and General Michael Flynn.
The memo reveals that RICU identified 2,000 posts from what it described as global ‘ERW audiences’ discussing Kirk’s assassination
In Britain, RICU identified 557 posts about Kirk’s assassination across 6,385 channels it monitors. The unit concluded that Kirk’s murder had generated a “moderate resonance” among UK “ERW audiences” compared with other major events, and that discussion had “rapidly returned to baseline levels” after an initial spike.
RICU nevertheless warned that Kirk’s British supporters would “likely point to this attack as a way to encourage more radical action.” The unit singled out Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
“It is expected that Yaxley-Lennon will reference this attack at his upcoming Unite the Kingdom rally this Saturday as a way to push pro-free speech narratives,” officials wrote. Elsewhere, RICU monitored comparisons between Robinson and the murdered American activist. One Patriotic Alternative-aligned account was quoted as saying: “we considered him the Tommy Robinson of the US…”
Lord Young, Director of the Free Speech Union, described RICU as an “Orwellian government surveillance operation” that has a “chilling effect on free speech.” “It’s depressing to learn that a Whitehall intelligence unit considers being ‘pro-free speech’ as something symptomatic of right-wing extremism and linked to terrorism.” “Counter-terrorism officials should not be monitoring Tommy Robinson’s or Turning Point UK’s responses to Charlie Kirk’s death,” Lord Young added.
Turning Point UK was also specifically monitored by RICU. Officials recorded that Kirk’s British organization was advertising a vigil for its murdered founder outside Whitehall on Friday, September 12.
Despite its warnings about calls for greater radicalism, RICU ultimately assessed that the British reaction was unlikely to result in violence. If political violence broke out in America, the memo predicted it would “likely garner rhetorical support from UK ERW actors,” but concluded that this was “unlikely to translate into offline action.”
RICU also analyzed reactions from “Left-Wing and Single Issue” (LASI) audiences. RICU initially said left-wing actors had “mostly factually” reported on his killing and generated “moderate responses” online from Left-wing accounts. However, its more detailed assessment found that, beyond factual reporting, reactions to Kirk’s death had “broadly been celebratory.”
Left-wing users mocked the manner of Kirk’s death because of his support for gun rights, according to the memo. RICU recorded memes on the subject and users recirculating Kirk’s previous criticism of gun control.
RICU also monitored the Socialist Worker, which responded to Kirk’s assassination by posting: “Charlie KKKirk’s chickens come home to roost.” Officials noted that the use of three Ks appeared to associate Kirk with the Ku Klux Klan, although engagement with the post was limited and responses largely criticized the Socialist Worker.
RICU has faced criticism over its failure to use the word “extreme” in its classification of left-wing activity
RICU has faced criticism over its failure to use the word “extreme” in its classification of left-wing activity. A 2024 report by Lord Walney, a government advisor on extremism, recommended replacing “Left-Wing and Single Issue” with “Extreme Left-wing and Anarchist” to “avoid unintentionally conflating mainstream Left-Wing views with the Far Left.”
RICU separately monitored the response of “UK Islamist Terrorist Supporters” (UK-ITS) and other Islamist extremist networks to Kirk’s murder. The assassination generated relatively little discussion in these channels. By 2 p.m. on September 11, RICU had detected around 550 posts relating to Kirk across monitored UK-ITS channels, out of approximately 55,000 in total.
But where Kirk’s murder was discussed, officials found the reaction was overwhelmingly hostile. “Overall, the rhetoric was celebratory, with little sympathy for Kirk and frequent use of the incident to advance anti-Zionist, anti-Western, and conspiratorial narratives,” the memo stated.
RICU found that some Islamist extremist accounts linked Kirk to Israeli interests and “celebrat[ed] his death as a result.” Some UK Islamist terrorist-supporting accounts displayed “overt satisfaction” at Kirk’s murder, portraying his death as “poetic justice” or “retribution” for his support for Israel, according to RICU.
RICU monitored 5Pillars and Documenting Oppression Against Muslims (DOAM), which it classified as UK Islamist groups “of Extremist Concern.” While both organizations posted relatively little about the assassination, RICU found that users in a DOAM-affiliated discussion group had “openly celebrated” Kirk’s murder, with one describing him as a “Zionist dog.”
Other posts promoted conspiracy theories about his assassination, including claims of CIA or Mossad involvement. One post claimed that “clues are quickly pointing to a highly sophisticated CIA/Mossad operation.”
Despite the relatively low volume of Islamist discussion, RICU concluded that Kirk’s killing was “expected to resonate considerably among extremist circles, but also potentially in some terrorist spaces.” A Home Office spokesperson said: “RICU provides analysis to inform the UK’s counter-terrorism system on terrorist and extremist activity online. This includes understanding how terrorist and extremist actors may exploit significant events. We cannot comment on its capabilities or areas of focus.”
This article first appeared on Steven Edginton’s Substack.
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