In the wake of some of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history, states want to thwart the attacks by aggressively investigating violent extremist messaging posted online
A bulletin from June 7, 2022 from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlines terrorism threats to the United States. | Jon Elswick/AP PhotoALBANY, N.Y. — .
While social media companies indicate they are still reviewing the legislation, the vagueness of the law leaves room for legal challenges, said Chris Marchese, counsel for NetChoice, a trade group that represents the sector. New York’s efforts will be months in the making. A task force to be led by state Attorney General Tish James won’t start until January, and her office says it’s too early to say what that task force will look like or what will come from the annual reports it is mandated to create.
While reports indicate the U.S. has been slow in its response, efforts to police social media are spreading across the country. Lawmakers of both parties support measures that would protect children from addiction to social media, as well as transparency measures. Individuals studied in the report created posts with “dark triad keywords” that often lead to violence in real life. Those types of posts were found in connection with the shooting in Buffalo. Payton Gendron, the 18 year old facing murder charges,for the attack online. His social media footprint included racist messages in hundreds of pages of writings posted just before the shooting. He also live streamed the shooting from a helmet-mounted camera.
“So there’s a lot of issues with prioritization, and with respect to the number of folks that we have looking at these things. It’s a very difficult process, it’s very large and very cumbersome.”The Buffalo shooting in May at a Tops supermarket led New York to install new laws that aim to fight hateful and violent speech online. | APKen Goldberg, a First Amendment attorney in Virginia, questioned that the vagueness of the New York law could lead to “unintended consequences.
“We cannot continue to operate in this manner … there’s no space for this type of violence, and extremism that we see taking place across our country at this time.”State Sen. Jamaal Bailey, a Bronx Democrat, said New York needs to better monitor online hate speech in order to limit mass shootings like the ones recently at a Buffalo supermarket and a Texas elementary school.