Advocacy Groups Urge Social Networks to 'Shut Hate Speech Down' After Buffalo Shooting
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People gather at the scene of a mass shooting at Tops Friendly Market at Jefferson Avenue and Riley Street on May 15 in Buffalo, New York.
What's happening
A coalition of advocacy and civil rights groups has a list of demands for social media companies in the wake of the Buffalo shooting.
Why it matters
The demands underscore how social media companies are facing more pressure to combat hate speech on their platforms.
A coalition of civil rights and advocacy groups on Thursday urged social media companies to do more to combat hate speech on their platforms more than a week after a white gunman killed 10 Black people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
"The tragic killing of 10 people in New York were motivated by the racist and hurtful replacement theory that has spread like wildfire through mainstream social media and is amplified to millions of viewers on cable TV channels," the Stop Hate for Profit coalition said in a press release. "It is time for social media platforms to shut hate speech down."
Stop Hate for Profit includes groups such as the ADL, Color of Change, the NAACP and Common Sense Media.
Replacement theory is a false conspiracy theory which holds that American elites are trying to replace native-born Americans with non-white immigrants who share their political views.
The suspected gunman, Payton Gendron, allegedly broadcast the shooting on livestreaming service Twitch. The company said it removed the video within two minutes of the violence beginning, but by then, links to the videos surfaced on other platforms such as Facebook. The gunman also mentioned the replacement theory in a 180-page document posted online.
Social media platforms have rules against hate speech, but advocacy groups say they're not properly enforcing their policies. The coalition, known for a popular campaign in 2020 in which major advertisers paused spending on Facebook, says that Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, Discord, YouTube and Reddit need to do more to combat white supremacist content.
The coalition is calling on the platforms to to ban repeat offenders such as Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, take down content about the great replacement theory, consistently apply content policies, improve algorithms to better identify white supremacists, train moderators to recognize white supremacist speech and create tools to detect language used by white supremacists. The demands show how advocacy groups are putting more pressure on social networks to do a better job of combating hate speech.
In a 23-page document, the coalition provided examples of content about replacement theory shared on various social media platforms.
Reddit spokeswoman Cameron Njaa said the company would continue to consult with advocacy groups like those in the coalition and work to reduce hateful conduct on the platform. "As we have shared with these groups, hateful content is unwelcome on Reddit, and we will take action against any discussion of the theory in question that violates our policies as well as the users and communities that engage in this behavior," she said in a statement.
Fox News, Twitch, Facebook, Discord and YouTube didn't respond to an e-mail about the demands. Twitter declined to comment.