BUFFALO, N.Y. (1010 WINS) -- Governor Kathy Hochul addressed hate speech on social media Monday, two days after a gunman shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, saying more needs to be done to stop "the feeding frenzy" on the platforms "where hate festers more hate."
The governor said she wants to meet face-to-face with the CEOs of social media platforms to make sure they’re cracking down on violent content.
“Holding companies that provide these platforms responsible for content and taking it down the second it appears,” Hochul told PIX11 on Monday morning. “There never should have been a second when the livestream of a military-style execution of innocent Buffalonians occurred—that never should have been able to be replayed anywhere.”
Among the deadliest racist attacks in recent years, a white 18-year-old man shot and killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday while broadcasting it live on social media, authorities said. Hochul called on social media company CEOs to do more to monitor violent and racist content.
“We don’t know if there are other people who are now going to be inspired, which is exactly what this cruel depraved person intended if you read the manifesto, he intended to make sure that other people would see it would happen in real-time here so they would consider other acts as well,” Hochul also said at a news conference over the weekend.
The shooting prompted the NYPD to increase security at Black churches across New York City in case of any copycats.
“I think that the social media companies discriminating information on their website to better understand when hate speech is posted, and being able to act upon it is half of the solution,” Dr. Adam Scott Wandt, assistant professor in cybersecurity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told 1010 WINS on Monday. “And the other half of the solution is trying to figure out a way to control when people live stream or post videos so that the social media could respond quickly and make that content unavailable."
Wandt said a handful of arrests are made each month of people who've posted threatening content on social media and many investigations have been opened. "So definitely more could be done over time,” he said.
Hochul directed flags to be flown at half-staff on Monday, and Mayor Eric Adams will attend a vigil for the Buffalo victims on Monday night at the Bethel Gospel Assembly in East Harlem.
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