A heavily armed white teenager dressed in military-style tactical gear slaughtered ten people in a racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday. The shooter then live-streamed the massacre on the popular video gaming platform Twitch. The footage has gone viral on Twitter and Reddit.
The 18-year-old suspect, Payton Gendron, filmed himself entering the Jefferson Avenue Tops Markets location and opening fire at shoppers inside. In a document he wrote, the suspect described himself as an anti-Black, white supremacist who believed his actions were justified. He also said he hoped his attack would inspire others to kill Black people.
Gendron’s livestream on Twitch, which is owned by Amazon and popular among gamers, was removed less than two minutes after the shooting began. However, the company has come under fire for taking so long to take down the video. A similar incident happened in New Zealand, where a man killed two mosques and live-streamed the attack on Facebook.
The suspect’s livestream has been viewed millions of times on the social media site. The video has been rebroadcast and is being shared on sites like TikTok, where it has been viewed more than 3 million times so far. The video was also reposted to other popular social media platforms, including Reddit, where it is gaining traction with over 11,000 upvotes and comments. It has also been featured on news outlets like Fox News and The Daily Mail. The shooting has prompted some people to call for censorship of the platform, while others have argued that it is not an appropriate place to post violent or otherwise offensive content.
