Social media platforms vowed to rein in extremism. Buffalo puts them to the test
CNN
In the wake of Saturday's mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, Big Tech platforms scrambled to stop the spread of a video of the attack filmed by the suspect and a document allegedly also produced by him where he outlines his beliefs.
Major social media platforms have tried to improve how they respond to the sharing of this kind of content since the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, which was streamed live on Facebook. In the 24 hours after that attack, Facebook said it removed 1.5 million copies of the video. Experts in online extremism say such content can act as far-right terrorist propaganda and inspire others to carry out similar attacks; the Buffalo shooter was directly influenced by the Christchurch attack, according to the document he allegedly shared.
The stakes for addressing the spread of such content quickly are significant. "This fits into a model that we've seen over and over and over again," said Ben Decker, CEO of digital investigations consultancy Memetica and an expert on online radicalization and extremism. "At this point we know that the consumption of these videos creates copycat mass shootings."