Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal is demanding a congressional hearing into how the perpetrator of Friday’s deadly terrorist attack in New Zealand was able to live stream the carnage on Facebook.
The Democrat blasted the social network and other platforms for their response to the shooting rampage, during which 50 people were killed by Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist from Australia who has been charged with murder.
“Facebook & other platforms should be held accountable for not stopping horror, terror & hatred — at an immediate Congressional hearing They must answer for an apparent abject failure to stop shock video and hate messaging,” Blumenthal tweeted Saturday.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has similarly questioned how the live stream was allowed to happen and said that social media platforms bear responsibility for monitoring hateful and violent content.
The criticism is the latest blunder for the tech giant Facebook, which has been under intense scrutiny after Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The company also came under fire earlier this month when it removed and then restored ads for presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren, Blumenthal’s Senate colleague, calling for the breakup of Facebook.
