From The New York Times:
Minutes after the shooting of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday, calls for civil war began appearing online.
The term “civil war” was mentioned on Wednesday more than 129,000 times on the social platform X, according to an analysis by The New York Times. On Thursday, it was mentioned at least 210,000 times. That was up from a daily average of around 18,000 in previous months. Many of the posts that included the phrase were reposted on other platforms, including Truth Social, TikTok and Instagram. The talk of civil war came largely from Republican lawmakers, right-wing media personalities and conservative podcasters, according to a review by The Times. Some questioned whether America was already engaged in a civil war over its values, while others called for violence after Mr. Kirk’s death.