Buffalo’s News Talk WBEN covered the horrific mass shooting at a Tops Market Saturday, leaving ten people dead. According to police, the attack was live-streamed on the social gaming platform Twitch.
The story captivated a national audience and quickly fueled debates about First Amendment rights as reports circulated that 18-year-old suspect Payton Gendron published a manifesto consistent with white supremacist ideology.
WBEN broadcast coverage of numerous press briefings Saturday and Sunday in addition to fielding phone calls from residents who were shaken by Saturday’s events. Station reporters sought reaction from the scene speaking to Tops worker Fragrance Harris Stanfield who she’ll never forget the second gunshots ring out.
“I turned around to tell my daughter how I was feeling, and we heard gunshots,” Standfield told the website. “We weren’t sure they were here at our building, so everyone stopped and turned and looked for the front door.”
WBEN spoke to Buffalo attorney Paul Cambria who discussed the challenges of monitoring social media platforms to thwart future attacks.
“They’re really no controls on social media speech,” Cambria said. “Twitter and Facebook and so on people can live stream things without the government telling them no you can do this and do that.”
Cambria alluded to certain Facebook rules where users can end up in “Facebook jail” for violating community standards but reiterated there are no specifics safeguards in place to prevent attacks like the one we witnessed on Saturday.
“That is a company policy as opposed to one imposed by the government,” he added.