NY governor rips social media sites in wake of Buffalo mass shooting

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) slammed social media platforms on Saturday after a gunman opened fire at a Buffalo, New York supermarket while broadcasting on Twitch, a live streaming service.

During remarks hours after the shooting, which killed 10 people, Hochul said social media outlets must be “more vigilant” in monitoring content.

“These outlets must be more vigilant in monitoring social media content. And certainly the fact that this act of barbarism, this execution of innocent human beings could be live streamed on social media platforms and not taken down within a second, says to me that there is a responsibility out there,” Hochul said.

“And we’re going to continue to work on this and make sure that those who provide these platforms have a moral and ethical, and I hope to have a legal responsibility to ensure that such hate cannot populate these sites, because this is the result,” she added.

The governor also said there is a “feeding frenzy” in social media outlets “that has to stop.”

“Mark my words we’ll be aggressive in our pursuit of anyone who subscribes to the ideals professed by other white supremacists and how there’s a feeding frenzy on social media platforms where hate festers more hate, that has to stop,” she said.

The alleged gunman, identified as 18-year-old Payton Gendron from Conklin, New York, shot 13 people on Saturday at a Tops Friendly Market, killing 10 and injuring three. Eleven of the victims shot were Black.

Authorities are now investigating the incident as a hate crime.

The shooter was wearing military gear during the attack and broadcasted it from a helmet camera

Twitch said the video of the incident was taken down within two minutes of when the shooting started, according to The New York Times. A spokeswoman for the platform said the user has been suspended from the service indefinitely, and noted that the company “has a zero-tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents.”

The shooter also allegedly posted a manifesto on 4chan, an online forum. The statement outlined ideas to assault Black individuals, according to NBC News.

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