New Jersey Probes Twitch, Discord for Hosting ‘Violent and Racist Content’ After Buffalo Shooting

Earlier this month, the lone gunman who carried out a racially-motivated massacre of 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York, allegedly used the chat app Discord and streaming features on Twitch to upload information and real-time footage of his crime to the internet. Twitch, owned by Amazon, reportedly removed the content within two minutes.

New Jersey acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced on Monday that the state has launched an investigation into Discord and Twitch over allegations that the social media platforms violated New Jersey law by hosting “violent and racist content” while advertising robust moderation services.

“These social media platforms have enormous reach, especially with young people, and have shown themselves to be staging grounds for hateful and extremist content that may radicalize children and others,” acting AG Platkin said in a quoted statement. “New Jersey has a substantial interest in investigating how these companies moderate and prohibit content that may harm consumers.”

He went on to declare that companies are required to deliver on promises that they enforce their own policies and practices while also moderating extremist and hateful content uploaded to the respective platforms.

The Monday issuance detailed that the 18-year-old suspect reportedly used Twitch to livestream his fatal shooting of 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket on Buffalo’s east side and disclosed details of his plot on Discord, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and messaging app. Twitch is primarily used by those streaming video game-related content.

“If these platforms represent that they will proactively moderate or prohibit violent extremism and hate, and then let it flourish unchecked with potentially harmful or even deadly consequences, it is unlawful,” said Cari Fais, acting director of New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs within the Department of Law and Public Safety.

The probe will also focus on how the platforms’ moderation policies apply to users who are minors and/or aged 13 and younger.

The New York AG’s decision to take action against Twitch and Discord comes less than a week after their New York counterpart launched a similar probe into the two tech platforms and anonymous message boards 4chan and 8chan.

Postings reportedly traced back to the anonymous forums showed that the 18-year-old suspect was a member of both and posted about his hatred for specific groups–including Black Americans–and discussed “potential plans to terrorize an elementary school, church, and other locations he believed would have a considerable community of Black people to attack.”

Twitch has maintained that it took down the Buffalo shooting suspect’s livestream within two minutes after it began. Nevertheless, clips of the shooting remain online and have been viewed millions of times due to social media users’ aggressive re-uploading of the graphic content.

The shooter proclaimed that “streaming this attack gives me some motivation in the way that I know some people will be cheering for me,” the shooter said during a rant, as reported by the Washington Post and New York Times.

Since the NY AG’s probe was announced, Twitch and Discord have said that they are cooperating with a number of law enforcement agencies regarding the Buffalo shooting, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security.

“Bigotry and hate don't happen in a vacuum,” proclaimed Twitch in a statement. “They're enabled by a permissive culture when we don't create spaces where people feel empowered to speak up.”