Anonymous posts circulating on Georgetown University's campus have proposed a Charlie Kirk lookalike contest for September 10, 2026 — the one-year anniversary of the conservative activist's assassination — sparking condemnation from university officials and Turning Point USA leaders alike. The posts, shared on the anonymous app Fizz, specified Copley Lawn on campus as the location and one read, according to screenshots obtained by Fox News Digital, that participants should “pull up to Copley Lawn [on campus] to speak the truth while the cost is high.”
The proposed contest was among a series of posts flagged by the New York Post, which reported that Georgetown's Turning Point USA chapter provided the contest posts to Fox News Digital after they began circulating. One Fizz commenter reportedly asked whether “the winner of the Charlie Kirk one” could be “prom king with the winner of this,” an apparent reference to a separate discussion of a lookalike contest for Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk. Other posts on the platform requested that Georgetown's a cappella group sing “We Are Charlie Kirk,” while one proclaimed “Happy Kirkaversary, September 10th, on Healy Law.”
Fizz is an anonymous social media platform that requires a university email to interact, and it is not officially associated with Georgetown University. According to The Hoya, the app is active on more than 750 college campuses nationwide, created by former Stanford students, and uses upvotes and karma leaderboards to amplify trending student posts. The contest post reportedly received more than 2,200 upvotes, per Fox News Digital — a figure the Post's report notes amounted to nearly a third of Georgetown's undergraduate student body.
University and Turning Point USA Respond
A Georgetown University spokesperson said the school had no knowledge of any student organization planning a similar event and was not planning such an event itself. The spokesperson condemned the anonymous posts' language as “deeply inconsistent with Georgetown University's values,” adding that making light of a victim of violence is “counter to the university's values and deeply disappointing,” per the same New York Post report. Georgetown's official policies give latitude for free expression of ideas and opinions, but that framework is bounded elsewhere: the university's Speech and Expression Policy explicitly prohibits expression that constitutes a genuine threat, falsely defames an individual, or violates harassment guidelines, according to Georgetown University. A Time analysis published 29 Apr 2024 said universities struggled to respond to student protests because courts provided confusing guidance on what type of student speech was protected. A Congressional Research Service report dated 28 Jun 2024 said the Supreme Court has emphasized the importance of free speech in college settings.
Heidi Sui, president of Turning Point USA's Georgetown University chapter, said the chapter strongly condemns events that disrespect Charlie Kirk and the upcoming memorial ceremony planned for Utah Valley University. Sui said some liberal students are mocking Kirk in Washington, D.C., but stressed that “the events do not represent how Americans feel about Charlie Kirk and his legacy” and that “Charlie Kirk never celebrated violence.” Georgetown's Turning Point USA chapter, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group founded in part by Kirk, said the mocking posts were meant to provoke a reaction rather than reflect genuine campus sentiment.
Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point USA spokesman, shamed “the mockers and trolls who debase themselves by mocking Charlie Kirk,” saying in a statement that “a culture that cannot mourn the fallen or respect them has lost touch with shared humanity.” Turning Point USA officials broadly slammed the possible lookalike contest as part of a wider pattern the organization says it has tracked online.
A Solemn Anniversary, and a Trial Moving Forward
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist who co-founded Turning Point USA, was killed by a sniper on September 10, 2025, during an outdoor campus debate at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, in front of an estimated 3,000 attendees, according to Wikipedia. On September 1, 2026, a Utah state judge ruled that 23-year-old Tyler James Robinson will stand trial for aggravated murder and could face the death penalty in connection with the killing, according to TIME. Robinson pleaded not guilty during his arraignment.
Turning Point USA has announced it will hold an official “Freedom Built to Last Memorial” on the anniversary at Utah Valley University's UCCU Center, featuring conservative figures including Glenn Beck and Frank Turek, serving as the anchor of a weeklong national commemoration. Erika Kirk, who became CEO of Turning Point USA after her husband's death and publicly forgave his shooter during a memorial service last September, authored a guest essay for The New York Times reflecting on her first year of grief ahead of the anniversary, according to LiveNOW from FOX.
Online Mockery Spreads Beyond One Campus
The Georgetown posts are not isolated. Conservative commentators and public figures have issued widespread condemnations over viral social media posts using terms like “Kirkaversary” or “Kirkiversary” to joke about the anniversary, a trend that began circulating heavily on TikTok and X in late August, according to Hindustan Times. The lookalike contest format itself traces back to a viral Timothée Chalamet event in New York City in October 2024 that sparked a wave of similar contests on college campuses and in major cities nationwide, per Wikipedia.
The controversy also revives questions about how universities handle anonymous apps like Fizz. In May 2024, the University of North Carolina System announced plans to block Fizz, YikYak, and Sidechat from campus networks over concerns about unchecked cyberbullying and harassment, according to The College Fix, though free speech groups criticized such network blocks as potential speech infringements.
The human toll of the original shooting remains significant nearly a year later. The Utah Office for Victims of Crime reported this month that roughly 500 individuals who witnessed or were present during the shooting at Utah Valley University remain eligible for state mental health support services, per KSL, with state officials coordinating support alongside the FBI and local law enforcement.
