New York Attorney General Letitia James is calling for Big Tech to be penalized for hosting violent images and video from mass shootings and for lawmakers to reform a key federal law governing social media.
James and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) released a report on Tuesday detailing online platforms’ role in the Buffalo mass shooting, in which 10 people were killed and three were injured at a supermarket. James and Hochul called for the passing of state legislation that would criminalize the spreading of violent media created by a shooter or killer. They also called for federal lawmakers to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social media companies from being penalized for what their users post on their websites.
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“Online platforms should be held accountable for allowing hateful and dangerous content to spread on their platforms,” James said in a statement. “Extremist content is flourishing online, and we must all work together to confront this crisis and protect our children and communities.”
James’s report looked at several platforms the shooter used, including 4chan, 8kun, Twitch, Discord, and YouTube. It subpoenaed them for thousands of pages of documents showing how they helped spread content, including several hateful and antisemitic memes.
The report concludes that fringe platforms play a notable role in fueling radicalization and that livestreaming sites like Twitch and Facebook have been used to broadcast violent crimes while they are occurring. The report slammed many companies’ moderation policies, arguing that they are inconsistent and unaccountable.
Tech advocacy groups slammed the proposed changes to Section 230.
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“The gun violence crisis in our country is horrifying, and lawmakers have let it go unaddressed for too long,” said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the progressive tech industry group Chamber of Progress, in a press statement. “Penalties for creating homicidal posts have the potential to slow the spread of violent content online. But the AG’s proposal to change Section 230 to prevent the spread of violent content misunderstands that Section 230 already protects and encourages content moderation. The best way to protect content moderation is to protect Section 230, not to gut it.”
The gunman in the May 11 shooting had mounted a camera onto his helmet and livestreamed the event on Twitch as the shooting occurred. He also posted a manifesto online explaining his reasons for doing so, including inspiration from the Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter. Twitch took the stream down within two minutes of the shooting, but clips of the incident still spread across the internet.
