The Empire State Strike Back – calls for new measures to track ‘hate behavior’ on social media

This week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers announced a sweeping gun control package. It would ban Empire State from selling the first body armor, when all semi-automatic rifle licenses would be required at the center of the bill. The age for obtaining a license will be 21, from current federal law, which allows 18-year-olds to purchase a long gun.

“New York already has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, but obviously we need to strengthen them,” Hochul said. “Working closely with majority leader Stuart-Cousin, Speaker Hasty, and all of our partners in the legislature, we will strengthen our gun laws, help keep New Yorkers safe, provide law enforcement with the tools they need to prevent crime, and stop the spread of those dangerous weapons.”

In addition to direct restrictions on gun purchases, the bill would require social media networks to provide a clear and concise policy on how to respond to incidents of abusive behavior on their platforms and to maintain an easily accessible process for reporting to those organizations. The Attorney General’s Office in New York Bill also called for the creation of a new task force on social media and violent extremism that could study and investigate the role of social media companies in promoting and supporting violent extremism and domestic terrorism online.

Buffalo mass shooting response

New York Attorney General Letitia James has criticized the reaction of social platforms after a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo last month.

“The terrorist attack in Buffalo has once again exposed the depth and danger of online forums that spread and propagate hatred,” James told reporters.

The suspect posted an advertisement on Google and then live-streamed the deadly shooting of 10 people on the Amazon-owned Twitch platform. Although the stream was taken down less than two minutes after the violence began, it was duplicated on other streaming sites. A copy of the video was reportedly viewed more than three million times before it was even removed.

“Social media companies have tried their best to remove this content, but when it is streamed live, it can be recorded and then shared elsewhere,” warns Jason Molika, a professor at American University’s School of Communication. Washington DC

Fighting against dangerous behavior and content

Social media platforms have been criticized for their role in spreading misinformation and confusion, and this has already proven to be a challenge. Trying to deal with extremism and hate speech will not be easy.

“We’ve heard and seen what these platforms can do, and they’ve shown that they can try to solve it,” said Molika. “But we have seen time and again that information will come out. There is always a solution.”

This has been true half way around the world in Ukraine, where social media has proven to be a digital lifeline to some on the battlefield. Similarly, a decade ago, social media was one of the few lines of communication for those involved in the Arab Spring movement. Even when it was attempted to be cut, the information was found.

New York may face a similar challenge.

“It’s still going to be difficult for staff to monitor everything posted,” Molika explained. “You can build offices, but where are the resources coming from? You can ‘control’ extremism, and you can even take down accounts. When it plugs a hole, there will be other cracks where the information comes from. The nature of social media.

“The idea of ​​what New York State wants to do is admirable, and perhaps even necessary, but I still don’t know if it can work,” Molica continued. “While it would be nice if each state created a similar task force and we created a community to monitor hateful content, it would be very difficult to hold social media accountable.”