After supermarket mass shooting, NY attorney general wants online sites held accountable
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The livestream of a gunman killing 10 shoppers in a Buffalo grocery store in May was recorded and posted online by a single individual across the country in Washington state, who was one of about just 30 viewers.
But by the time a 4chan moderator removed the post about 30 minutes later, the video had already been downloaded and reposted thousands of times, a state investigation revealed this week.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is calling for legislative reforms that she said would restrict the livestreaming of violence and hold loosely moderated online platforms accountable for allowing “hateful and extremist views to proliferate online, leading to radicalization and violence.”
In a report Tuesday, James said the 19-year-old gunman was both a product and perpetrator of online extremism.
In hundreds of pages written by the shooter, he outlined how discussions and videos of other mass shootings found on unmoderated platforms fostered his racist and violent beliefs and helped him prepare for the attack at Tops Friendly Market on May 14. He then turned to the same platforms to broadcast it, livestreaming the shooting and posting the 180-page document online to encourage copycats.
Following an investigation into the role of online platforms in the Buffalo shooting at the direction of Gov. Kathy Hochul, James issued the following recommendations:
Pass state legislation to criminalize the creation of images and videos depicting a homicide and penalize anyone who distributes or reshares the content.
Hold online platforms that fail to reasonably prevent or remove unlawful and violent content posted by third-party users accountable by amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1996 federal law currently provides blanket protections for these platforms against user content.
Enact restrictions on livestreaming, including verification requirements and recording delays to screen for violent content.
The Attorney General’s office subpoenaed and reviewed thousands of pages of documents from several online platforms used by the shooter or found to host content from the shooting afterward, including 4chan, 8kun, Reddit, Discord, Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others.
James’ recommendations come after the investigation revealed some platforms offer vast anonymity and lack policies to review and restrict extremist content. The report pointed to incomplete automatic moderation systems and an over-reliance on user reports on some platforms that allowed the gunman’s plans to go undetected.
In one case, a head moderator from 4chan told investigators that graphic video and images of the Buffalo shooting that spread through the website was “not even against the rules” because “the footage itself isn’t illegal, any more than footage of any act of violence is illegal,” according to the report.
“The anonymity offered by 4chan and platforms like it, and their refusal to moderate content in any meaningful way ensures that these platforms are and remain breeding grounds for racist hate speech and radicalization,” the report said. “In the absence of changes to the law, platforms like 4chan will not take meaningful action to prevent the proliferation of this kind of content on its site.”
Similar content inspired Buffalo shooter
In his written account, the Buffalo gunman said he started looking into white supremacist beliefs after finding a video of a mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, about a year after the 2019 attack, on 4chan.
The Christchurch shooter was the first white supremacist to livestream his attack. The video, hosted on Facebook, was not shut down until the attack was over, and by then it had gone viral.
The Buffalo gunman noted he modeled his shooting after the Christchurch attack and wrote about how livestreaming the shooting would embolden him to follow through.
The Attorney General’s report said mass shooters have “weaponized” livestreaming to instantly publicize their crimes, terrorize the communities they target, and incite additional violent acts.
The report included testimony from witnesses and family of victims of the Buffalo shooting who said the video “perpetuates their suffering.”
Healing the Harm in Buffalo:Healing the Harm in Buffalo: How 2 men are changing youths' lives through mentorship
The livestream of the Buffalo attack, hosted on Twitch, was live for 24 minutes before it was shut down. Most of the video depicted the shooter driving to the grocery store. Twitch disabled the livestream two minutes after the shooting began after several viewers reported the video.
About 28 people witnessed the video in real time, but copies quickly spread. Facebook and Instagram told investigators they removed 1 million pieces of content related to the shooting in the nine weeks following the attack.
“Although the initial video of the shooting was taken down more quickly than in previous mass shootings, it is not clear that can be attributed to any content moderation improvements by the platforms,” the report said, “and it was not quick enough to prevent proliferation of the content in the days after the shooting.”
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: After Buffalo Tops mass shooting, AG wants online restrictions
