Police walk outside the Tops grocery store on Sunday, May 15, 2022, in Buffalo, N.Y. A white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at the supermarket, killing and wounding people in what authorities described as “racially motivated violent extremism.” (AP Photo/Joshua Bessex)
Tech companies are facing renewed scrutiny following this weekend’s deadly shooting in Buffalo for failing to contain the spread of videos of the incident.
We’ll also look at a simmering feud over inflation between the White House and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and new cyber fears involving Russia.
This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar, Chris Mills Rodrigo and Ines Kagubare. Subscribe here.
Tech faces scrutiny after shooting
In the aftermath of Saturday’s mass shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store, attention is turning to the role technology companies played leading up to the attack and afterwards, as clips spread online.
Ten people were killed and three more were injured in the shooting. Authorities say the suspected gunman, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, livestreamed the shooting on Twitch, a streaming platform best known for hosting video game players.
Twitch said it pulled down the stream within two minutes of the violence starting, but for critics that reaction was insufficient. The civil rights organization Color of Change renewed its calls for the company to undergo a racial equity audit after the shooting.
Video clips from the shooting quickly spread across the rest of social media over the weekend and on Monday, despite efforts from platforms to rein them in.
More than three years after the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, which was streamed live on Facebook and shared widely across the internet, tech companies are once again facing scrutiny on how they handle such attacks.
Bezos faces White House backlash
The White House on Monday hit back at criticism from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos over its economic policies in the latest back-and-forth between the administration and the tech and retail magnate.
“It doesn’t require a huge leap to figure out why one of the wealthiest individuals on Earth opposes an economic agenda for the middle class that cuts some of the biggest costs families face, fights inflation for the long haul, and adds to the historic deficit reduction the President is achieving by asking the richest taxpayers and corporations to pay their fair share,” deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
“It’s also unsurprising that this tweet comes after the President met with labor organizers, including Amazon employees,” Bates added.
Bezos responded a short time later on Twitter, accusing the White House of trying to “muddy the topic” and shift the focus away from soaring inflation.
Read more here.
MUSK, TWITTER CEO ARGUE OVER SPAM ACCOUNTS
Elon Musk on Monday publicly challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal’s explanation of how the platform measures bot or spam accounts.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced last week he was putting his $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter “on hold” over concerns about the platform’s estimate that less than 5 percent …….
Source: https://news.yahoo.com/hillicon-valley-buffalo-shooting-renews-232524023.html