Louisville mass shooting: In yet another incident of mass killing in the United States, a Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace, killing five people — including a close friend of Kentucky’s governor — while live streaming the attack on Instagram on Monday.
The live-streaming of such a tragic incident has again raised grave questions on social media platforms which have been claiming to place a proper mechanism to prohibit the promotion of heinous acts on their platforms.
According to Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire. The city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack “an evil act of targeted violence.”
Mass shootings in US surged in past few years
Notably, the country has witnessed a surge in mass killing in the past few years. The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the country this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 260 kilometres to the south. That state’s governor and his wife also had friends killed in that shooting.
Meanwhile, police said that the killer of the Louisville incident was identified as 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, who she said was live streaming during the attack.
“That’s tragic to know that that incident was out there and captured,” she said.
Meta claims it has removed the video swiftly
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it had “quickly removed the live stream of this tragic incident this morning.”
Social media companies have imposed tougher rules over the past few years to prohibit violent and extremist content.
They have set up systems to remove posts and streams that violate those restrictions, but shocking material like the Louisville shooting continues to slip through the cracks, prompting lawmakers and other critics to lash out at the technology industry for slipshod safeguards and moderation policies.
Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries from the Louisville shooting, University of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountaine said in an email. One of the wounded, identified as 57-year-old Deana Eckert, later died, police said Monday night.
(With inputs from agency)
