Courtney Radsch in the LA Times on the Possible Reaction of Platforms to the Buffalo Shooting

After the Buffalo, NY shooting, social media companies could crack down on the racist “great replacement theory,” but it would be politically difficult, our Fellow Courtney Radsch told the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Times runs an article on the possible impact on social media companies of the racially motivated shooting in Buffalo, NY, on 14 May 2022. A white supremacist killed 10 people and wounded three others in a black neighborhood, motivated by a conspiracy theory often spread online.

Courtney Radsch told the newspaper that hate speech directed at a specific group and related threats of violence were already a violation of most social media companies’ terms of service. The shooting can encourage the companies to better enforce the rules.

“I think that when you do see a link to real-world violence, and such a direct link, that that will provide greater cover” for cracking down, Radsch said,” the article writes.

Yet it is unclear whether this will, indeed, happen as the racial replacement theory has also featured prominently in right-wing mainstream media such as Fox News.

“There is already a perception among some conservatives that social media companies are biased against right-wing content,” the article writes. This means that removing posts spreading the theory “could put the platforms in politically dicey waters, Radsch said." For this reason she thinks platforms may not take action.