Charlie Kirk’s assassination earlier this month spurred rare calls from the right for more for content moderation measures on social media.

At least two Republican lawmakers backed calls for social media platforms to remove graphic videos of the shooting, another called for lifetime bans for users who celebrated Kirk’s murder, while a senior Trump administration official suggested an end to anonymous accounts.

A week later, these calls seem to have gained little traction in Congress, and social media experts say tech companies are unlikely to pursue any change without mandates or incentives.

“Clearly we need a change in direction on some of these issues,” Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr said at the Politico Tech and AI Summit on Tuesday.

However, he cautioned against government-mandated censorship, pointing to the Biden administration’s efforts to remove COVID-19 misinformation during the pandemic — a longtime GOP bugbear.

“My view today is we need to empower individual users to make their own content moderation decisions,” he said. “And give them the tools to curate their online persona.”

Carr set off a First Amendment firestorm this week with his threats against ABC affiliates in his campaign to punish late night host Jimmy Kimmel for comments about Kirk’s death, which even some Republicans say crossed a constitutional line.

But that’s just the latest example of how the polarized response to Kirk’s brutal death has tested the Republican party’s stance on free speech — especially on social media.

Soon after the gunshot struck Kirk, who was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University, videos of the moment spread quickly across X, TikTok, Meta and other social platforms.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) called for X, Meta and TikTok to take down videos of Kirk’s death, a call supported by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).

“[At] some point, social media begins to desensitize humanity,” Luna wrote on Sept. 11, the day after the shooting. “We must still value life. Please take them down.”

She wrote later that day that TikTok had complied with her request, adding, “I have also asked them to take down content that uses this........

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