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The families of three victims killed in the Buffalo mass shooting have filed a lawsuit against several social media companies that they allege radicalized the gunman to attack their predominately Black community.
According to the New York Post, families of Heyward Patterson, Katherine Massey, and Andre Mackniel, three of the 10 Black people killed at Tops Supermarket, sued Meta, Facebook's parent company, Snapchat, Discord, Reddit, 4chan, Youtube, and Twitch over the May 2022 massacre conducted by shooter Peyton Gendron, 19.
“Gendron was motivated to commit his heinous crime by racist, anti-Semitic, and white supremacist propaganda fed to him by the social media companies whose products he used,” the lawsuit alleges.
The suit comes after Gendron pleaded guilty to charges including murder and domestic terrorism and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
According to the lawsuit, Gendron became “addicted” to Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat as the social media company presented him with "increasingly extreme and violent content."
“Taking full advantage of the incomplete development of Gendron’s frontal lobe, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat maintained his product engagement by directing him to increasingly extreme and violent content which, upon information and belief, promoted racism, anti-Semitism, and gun violence,” the suit states.
The lawsuit further alleges that the companies promoted hateful content due to algorithms designed to maximize engagement.
“The social media platforms that Gendron encountered are equipped with sophisticated algorithms designed to addict teenage users by taking advantage of their incomplete brain development and maintain their engagement through increasingly extreme and psychologically discordant content,” the suit continues.
Snapchat released a statement addressing the lawsuit following its filing on Friday (May 12).
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech and discrimination of any kind,” Snapchat said. “We deliberately designed Snapchat differently than traditional social media platforms and don’t allow unvetted content to go viral or be algorithmically promoted.”
Google also issued a statement in regard to the suit.
“We have the deepest sympathies for the victims and families of the horrific attack at Tops grocery store in Buffalo last year,” the company said. “Through the years, YouTube has invested in technology, teams, and policies to identify and remove extremist content. We regularly work with law enforcement, other platforms, and civil society to share intelligence and best practices.”
The lawsuit also names Gendron's parents, Paul and Paula Gendron, his gun dealer, Vintage Firearms, and the company the gunman bought his body armor from, RMA Armament, as defendants.
“You’ve got to start somewhere, in order for them to get the message. These big companies only know one thing, money. So, you’ve got to hurt them. How many people do you want to see dead?” Massey’s sister, Barbara Massey Mapps, said in a statement.
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