On Endless Thread, we talk about the blurring lines between our online and offline worlds. This week, we discuss the role online platforms played in the mass shooting on May 14, 2022 in Buffalo, New York.
, and we want to be able to keep making it far into the future. If you want that too, we would deeply appreciate your contribution to our work in any amount. Everyone who makes a monthly donation will get access to exclusive bonus content.This content was originally created for audio. The transcript has been edited from our original script for clarity. Heads up that some elements are harder to translate to text.
So today, instead of our regular planned programming, we’re going to talk about all of that and content moderation.Dr. Joan Donovan Joan: This is my job. And so I have read the manifesto, watched the video, and also read the chat logs from Discord, where he essentially makes a list of everything he needs to get done before he goes and does this extremely hideous and violent act.
Nora: Yeah, and what Joan Donovan says we need to pay attention to INSTEAD of things like the specifics of this individual’s action—or their manifesto—is the power of inspiring others to do the same—thanks to social media channels.These live streams have become a new weapon in the far-right. To me, it's most reminiscent of cross burnings and public hangings.
Nora: You heard Joan reference the Christchurch mass shooting there which is in New Zealand. The one where an Australian gunman carried out racist violent attacks against members of two mosques in Christchurch after being radicalized online. And he live streamed it the attack as well. People are saying the Buffalo attack is potentially a copycat attack.
evelyn: “Not again,” is the first thought that pop into one's head at this moment, but it's sort of surprise and despair, but also not surprise. And then, you know, fairly quickly, given what I study, there's the question of is there going to be a social media aspect to this? And the answer is almost inevitably yes at this point.Evelyn: Yeah. Yeah, I don't. Don't sound exactly like you. I'm from Australia. G'day.
The problem was not that the platforms were not trying to remove the video, and it had all of these, like, threats of criminal sanctions, you know, to to lock executives up. And it's never been used. It's never been used in the years since it was passed, this legislation. Nora: So what jumps out to you in terms of the roles tech platforms and content moderation played in the mass shooting in Buffalo? Before, during, and after the actual incident?
But in another sense that 2 minutes was enough, that 2 minutes was enough for someone to download the video and for it now to be spread on on many different platforms. And in terms of thinking about containing it, I mean, this is a story about how it's not enough to look at an individual platform. It's not enough to look at what was Twitch's response. But we need to think about it as an ecosystem.
Ben: Let's talk about the Facebook example briefly for a second. You know, the reporting on it or the suggestion, some of the, the sort of Twitter conversation I've seen about it was that effectively it was getting flagged by people, the video was getting flagged by people. But Facebook's content moderation system was sending messages back.
So in the example of these these videos, I talked about the hash database, which, you know, sounds pretty airtight, but actually it's pretty easy to get around because people can make minor alterations to the video, whether it's the ratio or the color or sort of put a watermark on it or something like that. Things like that can fool an algorithm that's pretty dumb and looking for one thing and one thing alone.
And so the kinds of tools that, that lawmakers need to be thinking about, you know, we were talking about transparency. It would be great to know what Facebook did in this case and what exactly failed to put pressure on them to to reform that. It would be great to talk about, you know, mandates for things like due process. For the people that flagged this video, why are they not getting an explanation of what exactly happened or why the video wasn't being taken down.
Norge Siste Nytt, Norge Overskrifter
Similar News:Du kan også lese nyheter som ligner på denne som vi har samlet inn fra andre nyhetskilder.
Buffalo shooting highlights threat of online extremism amid pandemicBUFFALO, N.Y. — In the early months of the pandemic, security experts sounded the alarm over the possible escalation of online radicalization and terrorist violence as people isolated and spent more time on social media.
Les mer »
VyStar opens some branches on Sunday as online banking issues persistAs online and mobile banking continues to be offline, VyStar Credit Union is opening some of its branches on Sunday to help customers.
Les mer »
Buffalo shooting highlights threat of online extremism amid pandemicIn the early months of the pandemic, security experts sounded the alarm over the possible escalation of online radicalization and terrorist violence as people isolated and spent more time on social media.
Les mer »
The Family Road Trip Is A Special Hell'I envisioned the destination. I did my calming inhales like they taught me in one of the birthing classes. There’s no turning back now.'
Les mer »
Stop Treating Violence Against Asian American Women as Just a Racism ProblemSix months after the Atlanta spa shootings prompted a national conversation about anti-Asian hate in this country, we better understand how deeply systemic this violence is, especially for Asian American women. AAPI women and girls are subject to anti-Asian racism and misogyny.AAPI women have experienced high rates of harassment and violence as a result of dehumanizing stereotypes, affecting them at home and in the workplace. Asian American women's experience with violence often is overlooked as reporting services struggle to meet their needs, often linguistically and culturally, which are critical in providing adequate support to victims of abuse.
Les mer »
Selena Gomez Slams Social Media Companies in Wake of Buffalo Mass Shooting: ‘My Heart Is Broken’Selena Gomez has once again called out social media companies for not doing enough to stop the spread of online hate speech.
Les mer »