White House consults with social networks giants on forecasting mass shootings

The White House consulted with tech giants Friday to go over how tools may be established to scan social networks posts and forecast mass shootings, according to a report by The Washington Post. The conference, which followed 2 such shootings last weekend that have actually left 31 individuals dead, consisted of Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, all of which were asked to make recommendations in the next couple of weeks, the Post stated.

Early Sunday, 9 individuals passed away in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. The day previously, 20 individuals passed away in a shooting in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, with another 2 victims passing away Monday early morning. Just prior to the El Paso attack, the believed shooter published a hate-filled declaration on 8chan, a confidential online forum.

Twitter verified to CNET that its public law executives went to Friday’s White House conference, while the Internet Association, a lobbying group formed by Amazon, Facebook, Google and other tech business, identified the conference a “productive discussion” on combating despiteful and violent material online.

Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman stated in an emailed declaration that its members “detailed their extensive efforts using automated tools and human review to find and prevent the spread of hateful, violent and extremist content on their platforms.”

“Hate and violent extremism are a society-wide problem and cannot be solved solely online,” Beckerman included Friday afternoon. “As technology companies, we will continue to collaborate across industry, government, law enforcement and other stakeholders to address hate and extremism.”

Other IA members consist of Microsoft, Reddit, Snap Inc., Twitter and Uber.

The Trump administration desires tools that might forecast mass shootings and provide an early caution by going through social networks pictures, posts and videos, according to the Post. But 2 of the report’s 3 unnamed sources stated that the tech giants raised personal privacy interest in looking at information on people throughout several social networks platforms.

The White House didn’t right away react to an ask for remark. Nor did Amazon, Facebook, Google or Microsoft.

Earlier today, United States President Donald Trump contacted social networks business to “establish tools to discover mass shooters prior to they strike.”  

Former President Barack Obama also tweeted about the mass shootings, stating “law enforcement and internet platforms need to come up with better strategies to reduce the influence of these hate groups.”