Tyler Robison Discord messages and dark online world in which the Charlie Kirk assassin discussed his plans, motives, guns, bullets

According to investigators, the Washington County, Utah man arrested in connection with the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk utilized the social media site Discord to send messages documenting the aftermath of the crime in an online chatroom. 

Tyler Robinson, 22, sent texts about the gun and engraved bullets used in Wednesday's assassination, authorities said during a Friday morning press briefing.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Tyler Robinson's unidentified roommate showed detectives information about the firearm and how it was stashed beneath brush, wrapped in a towel.

Authorities stated Thursday that a Mauser.30-caliber bolt-action rifle and a spent cartridge were discovered in the woods. Three additional bullets remained in the magazine.

Authorities said he inscribed messages on bullets referring to internet culture and anti-fascist sentiments before firing the shot that killed Kirk on Wednesday.

According to Cox, one of the bullets was engraved with ‘Notices bulge OwO, what’s this?’, a meme used to troll ‘furries’ and transgender people.

Furries are a community who adopt anthropomorphized animal personas, sometimes in a sexual context.

The website ‘Know Your Meme’ points to the phrase reportedly engraved on the bullet being used online to troll furries.

OWO is intended to represent a wide-eyed face of surprise, with ‘notices bulge’ referring to the male appendage.

Another engraving said ‘Hey Fascists! Catch’, alongside an up arrow, a right arrow symbol and another three arrows pointing downwards.

Another was engraved with the words of prominent Italian anti-fascist song ‘Bella Ciao’, which is dedicated to the Italian resistance who fought against Nazism.

The final unfired casing was inscribed with: ‘If you read this you are gay LMAO’, Cox added. LMAO is an internet acronym for ‘laughing my ass off’.

According to police, Robinson's roommate told officers that he discussed the engravings and his actions following the assassination in an online chatroom. It is believed he used the website Discord, which is also a game platform.

Discord, which was established in 2015, began as a video game chat app. It then evolved to incorporate calling and video conversations, as well as the ability for users to show which video games they were playing and, eventually, to allow individuals to play games on the platform.

According to the nonprofit Entertainment Software Rating Board, Discord is used by over 200 million people each month.

While the free platform is primarily used by gamers, ‘Users now leverage Discord for all manner of personal and professional virtual gatherings, including hosting book clubs, knitting groups, sewing circles, and more,’ according to ESRB president Patricia Vance. 

 

But these benign uses have been overshadowed in recent years by more ominous ones. Discord offers both private and public servers, allowing users to determine their own degree of privacy.

It is here were youth are thought to use the platform to privately communicate with other followers plans and plots and thoughts privately as is thought to be the case with Minneapolis trans shooter,  Robin Westman, 23, who investigators believe may have been radicalised on the dark web along with other mass shooters.

The dark side of Discord

In a statement after the shooting, Discord disclosed Gendron’s activities on the platform and pledged to work to combat hate, violence and extremism.

‘We understand hateful ideologies and proponents of organized violence will persist online and offline, and we acknowledge that we must do more to remove hate and violent extremism from Discord. We created Discord to be a place for people to find belonging, and hate and violence are in direct opposition to our mission. We take our commitment to these principles seriously and will continue to invest in and deploy resources,’ the statement said.

While Discord users can be anonymous, at Friday’s news conference, Cox said that the messages shown by Tyler Robinson’s roommate were from an account with the name ‘Tyler.’

Robinson was turned in to police overnight by his father and a minister in southern Utah after images of a person of interest were shared by authorities.

Cox said they currently believe the shooter acted alone in the Sept. 10 shooting of Kirk, who was taking questions from an audience of about 3,000 people at Utah Valley University when he was hit by a single shot and collapsed.