YouTube and Reddit are sued for allegedly enabling the racist mass shooting in Buffalo that left 10 dead

It use to be video games and movies taking the blame. Now it's websites. When are we going to decide that people are just bat shit crazy and guns need some form of regulation?

Idk about this suit but let's not forget how Facebook did actually in fact get a fascist elected president.

https://www.wired.com/2016/11/facebook-won-trump-election-not-just-fake-news/

It's bizarre looking at this from the outside and seeing Americans trying to blame everything but the availablity of guns for shootings happening.

Fantastic. I've been waiting to see these cases.

Start with a normal person, get them all jacked up on far right propaganda, then they go kill someone. If the website knows people are being radicalized into violent ideologies and does nothing to stop it, that's a viable claim for wrongful death. It's about foreseeability and causation, not about who did the shooting. Really a lot of people coming in on this thread who obviously have no legal experience.

Fuck reddit but thats bs.

YouTube, named with parent companies Alphabet Inc. and Google, is accused of contributing to the gunman’s radicalization and helping him acquire information to plan the attack. Similarly, the lawsuits claim Reddit promoted extreme content and offered a specialized forum relating to tactical gear.

Yeah this is going nowhere.

The algorithm feeds on fear and breeds anger. This much is true.

Say what you want about youtube and reddit but if you want them to censor more and more you are creating a sword that can be used against you too. I also don't like the idea of shooting the messenger no matter how much we may dislike the messages. When I hear lawsuits like this I always think it is greedy lawyers pushing people to sue because they see deep pockets.

The article doesn't really expand on the Reddit point: apart from the weapon trading forum, it's about the shooter being a participant in PoliticalCompassMemes which is a right wing subreddit. After the shooting the Reddit admins made a weak threat towards the mods of PCM, prompting the mods to sticky a "stop being so racist or we'll get deleted" post with loads of examples of the type of racist dog whistles the users needed to stop using in the post itself.

I don't imagine they'll have much success against Reddit in this lawsuit, but Reddit is aware of PCM and its role and it continues to thrive to this day.

The lawsuit claims Mean LLC manufactured an easily removable gun lock, offering a way to circumvent New York laws prohibiting assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

This seems like the only part of the suits that might have traction. All the other bits seem easy to dismiss. That's not a statement on whether others share responsibility, only on what seems legally actionable in the US.

They're just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks hoping to get some money. Suing google for delivering search results? It shows how ridiculous blaming tools is. The only person liable here is the shooter.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

YouTube, Reddit and a body armor manufacturer were among the businesses that helped enable the gunman who killed 10 Black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, according to a pair of lawsuits announced Wednesday.

The complementary lawsuits filed by Everytown Law in state court in Buffalo claim that the massacre at Tops supermarket in May 2022 was made possible by a host of companies and individuals, from tech giants to a local gun shop to the gunman’s parents.

The lawsuit claims Mean LLC manufactured an easily removable gun lock, offering a way to circumvent New York laws prohibiting assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

YouTube, named with parent companies Alphabet Inc. and Google, is accused of contributing to the gunman’s radicalization and helping him acquire information to plan the attack.

“We aim to change the corporate and individual calculus so that every company and every parent recognizes they have a role to play in preventing future gun violence,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law.

Last month, victims’ relatives filed a lawsuit claiming tech and social media giants such as Facebook, Amazon and Google bear responsibility for radicalizing Gendron.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

• RMA Armament is named for providing the body armor Gendron wore during the shooting.

No he bought it.

• Vintage Firearms of Endicott, New York, is singled out for selling the shooter the weapon used in the attack.

Not their issue he passed the background check.

• The lawsuit claims Mean LLC manufactured an easily removable gun lock, offering a way to circumvent New York laws prohibiting assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

Any knob w/ a dremel can make a gun full auto, let alone defeating a mag lock. And he broke NY law doing this.

• YouTube, named with parent companies Alphabet Inc. and Google, is accused of contributing to the gunman’s radicalization and helping him acquire information to plan the attack.

This is just absurd.

My guess is they are hoping for settlements vs going to trial where they lose.

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This is really, really stupid.

The village (community/lack of community) makes the villains. Everyone's a problem. We are all to blame.

Ahh one of those "We're mad and we don't have anyone to be angry with." style lawsuits. Pretty much the Hail Mary from a lawyer who is getting their name in the paper but knows it won't go anywhere.

"Easy to remove gun lock" that has been tried multiple times and usually fails. "Gun lock" doesn't seem to be related to assault weapons and large capacity magazine but who knows what they mean, even when a gun is "Easily modifiable" it's usually not treated as illegal, because someone has to actually make those modifications. The same will probably be the case for the kevlar. (at the time of the shooting it was legal).

Youtube contributing to radicalization is a laugh, it's an attempt to get their name in the papers and will be dismissed easily. They'd have better chance to name the channels that radicalized him, but first amendment rights would be near absolute here. Besides which "Radicalization" isn't the same as a conspiracy or orders. It's the difference between someone riling up the crowd until they're in a fervor which ends up in a riot, and someone specifically telling people how to riot and who to target. (Even if can be tried as crimes, one is a conspiracy, one is not, and even that "radicalization" would be neither.) Even "I wish someone would go shoot up ..." would be hyperbole, and thrown out as well. It's pretty hard to break the first amendment protections in America (And that's a good thing, if you think it's not imagine if the other party is in power and wants to squash your speech... yeah let's keep that amendment in place).

The same will be the case against Facebook for all the same reasons.

If you think Google should be responsible, then you think the park that someone is radicalized in should be responsible for what's said in it, or the email provider is responsible for every single piece of mail that is sent on it, even though it might not have access to see that mail... it's a silly idea even assuming they could even do that. Maybe they're hoping to scare Google to change it's algorithm, but I doubt that will happen either.

The case against the parents is another one that people try and again... unless there's more than their saying, you still can't sue someone for being a bad parent. Hell there's a better case against the parents of Ethan Crumbley, and even that cases is still pretty shaky, and involved the parents actively ignoring every warning sign, and buying the kid the gun. This there's nothing that seems to be pinnable on the parents.

You know it sucks and I know there's a lot of hurt people but lawsuits like this ultimately fail because it's like rolling the dice, but history pretty much shows this is hoping for a one in a million chance that they get lucky, and they won't, because it's one in a million, and then they'd have to hope it's not overturned even if they do win.

interesting… whether the sites will be found liable…. it’s pretty unlikely, but it sure does shine a spotlight on how each are magnets for alt-right crazies. I wonder if that will have any effect on their moderation?

I doubt it.

This lawsuit is not going anywhere because of Section 230.

Fuck off thats some bs

Thats like suing weapons for killing people

I have a feeling no one here ever ran a website in their life

I used to think censorship worked. Now I think that just encourages troubled individuals to find an even worse echo chamber somewhere on the internet.

I don't know what the right answer is regarding some of the parties in these lawsuits, I just see more and more stuff get censored and it never seems to get any better.

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Can't see how the lawsuit on the tech giants gets passed Section 230, which is unfortunate as Spez and the people who run Youtube willfully helped enable and encourage this shooter.

FTFY.

"YouTube, Reddit and a body armour manufacturer were among the businesses that helped enable the gunman who killed 10 Black people in an racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, according to a pair of lawsuits announced Wednesday.

Yup, definitely the websites fault. Nothing more to it.

anyone blaming guns here are just as bad as blaming youtube or reddit.