New lawsuit says social media and gun companies played roles in 2022 Buffalo shooting

The families of the Buffalo Tops supermarket shooting victims are suing several social media platforms, gun companies and the shooter’s parents, alleging their roles in the 2022 mass shooting.

The defendants: The 176-page lawsuit was filed against nearly a dozen companies including Meta, Reddit, Amazon’s Twitch, Google, YouTube, Discord, 4Chan, body-armor manufacturer RMA Armament, and Vintage Firearms, a gun retailer.
* The lawsuit also implicates the parents of the shooter, 20-year-old Payton Gendron.

The claim: The suit alleges these social media platforms and other defendants played a role in the radicalization of Gendron, leading him to carry out the deadly shooting.
* It states that Gendron “was not racist until he became addicted to social media apps” and was fed a stream of racist and white supremacist propaganda.
* The lawsuit claims Gendron became socially isolated and radicalized by exposure to fringe ideologies, primed by the weapons companies’ conduct.

Who spoke out: Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, along with attorneys Diandra Zimmerman and Terry Connors, announced the lawsuit, arguing these companies must be held accountable.
* José Castañeda, a spokesperson for YouTube, expressed sympathies for the victims and families, highlighting their efforts to remove extremist content.

The background: Gendron has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and proceedings for his federal charges, including several hate crime charges, are still ongoing. He has been held without bail since his arrest after the May 2022 shooting.

View original article on NPR

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