Gab and the Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre
On Saturday morning, a man armed with an Ar-15-style assault rifle and other smaller handguns open fired on a Pittsburgh synagogue. Shouting anti-Semitic slurs, he managed to kill eleven of those attending the service as well as wounding four police officers and two others. Among one of the largest violent acts committed against the Jewish community in America, the gunman Robert Bowers, of which there was no prior criminal activity, was taken alive and will be tried on 29 counts. Of these 29, using a firearm to commit murder and the obstruction of free exercise of religion.
A white, American homegrown terrorist is what Robert Bowers should bring to mind. A question we must naturally ask ourselves is how can someone commit such heinous acts? A place to start is the social media musings that are objectively full of hate. Bowers was a user of the social media platform Gab, which prides itself on a protector of free speech, believing much of our current political is labeled hate speech when it is in fact political. The above post was the last post made by Bowers before unloading into the religious place of worship. Gab, and other such "free speech protectors" have become popular among nationalist, alt-right groups. Do social media platforms have an ethical obligation to remove content that could be considered hate speech? If not, do they have a duty to report it?
Robert Bowers' bio read "Jews are the children of Satan" and constantly posted and shared content that contained slurs and other such negative bias as well as posting suitcases of guns. I think that if Gab (and other such platforms) are going to be extremely passive and laissez faire in their handling of hate speech, then I think they have an ethical and moral obligation to watch and report possible future shooters. Gab, as a byproduct of its mission statement, will become a breeding ground for hate, it will only polarize and make members more extreme. As much as it should not be the responsibility of a social media platform, it seems this is one of the best tactics we have until the United States' government decides to take some political action.
A white, American homegrown terrorist is what Robert Bowers should bring to mind. A question we must naturally ask ourselves is how can someone commit such heinous acts? A place to start is the social media musings that are objectively full of hate. Bowers was a user of the social media platform Gab, which prides itself on a protector of free speech, believing much of our current political is labeled hate speech when it is in fact political. The above post was the last post made by Bowers before unloading into the religious place of worship. Gab, and other such "free speech protectors" have become popular among nationalist, alt-right groups. Do social media platforms have an ethical obligation to remove content that could be considered hate speech? If not, do they have a duty to report it?
Robert Bowers' bio read "Jews are the children of Satan" and constantly posted and shared content that contained slurs and other such negative bias as well as posting suitcases of guns. I think that if Gab (and other such platforms) are going to be extremely passive and laissez faire in their handling of hate speech, then I think they have an ethical and moral obligation to watch and report possible future shooters. Gab, as a byproduct of its mission statement, will become a breeding ground for hate, it will only polarize and make members more extreme. As much as it should not be the responsibility of a social media platform, it seems this is one of the best tactics we have until the United States' government decides to take some political action.
I just went to GAB's website and the statement made by the CEO was honestly astounding. This whole situation is so concerning. I think that it was wildly inappropriate for the CEO to say some of the things he did. I have never heard of the "no-platform" before. The CEO addresses that not many have heard of it and apparently the publicity of the event seems to be all that he cares about.
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