Missouri – Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has joined a growing group of state attorneys general who are calling on Meta Platforms, Inc. to take immediate action to stop the spread of violent terrorist content on its social media sites, Facebook and Instagram. The move shows that people all around the country have concerns about how Big Tech makes graphic and extremist content more visible online.
Hanaway says that the call for responsibility comes after alarming allegations that Meta didn’t stop videos and pictures of terrorist acts and murders from circulating. The coalition’s letter to Meta asks the company to be completely open about its policy and actions when it comes to violent and terror-related content. It also wants Meta to say what it has done in response to recent cases filed by people who were hurt by terrorist acts.
Hanaway noted that the problem goes beyond one event or country. She warned that the unfiltered proliferation of violent images online makes people less sensitive and helps people become more radicalized around the world.
“The spread of violent content online doesn’t stop at national borders; it reaches into our homes, our schools, and our communities,” said Attorney General Hanaway. “That kind of digital violence is unacceptable. When social media companies fail to prevent the glorification and spread of terrorism, they put every community at risk.”
The demand for answers comes in the wake of a lawsuit brought by victims of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, which killed over 1,200 people and left thousands more wounded or kidnapped. The lawsuit says that Meta let users share live and recorded videos of the attacks, which made its platforms tools that made the violence more prevalent. In one reported case, attackers allegedly put a video of a victim’s death right on her own Facebook profile.
Hanaway and her colleagues have requested Meta for updated versions of its internal rules about violent and terrorist content, as well as information on how it finds and removes this kind of content and what it does to keep it from coming back. The coalition says that Meta’s own promise to protect users, which it made in its public Transparency Center, doesn’t match up with the accusations that the company is facing right now.
“Violence online fuels violence offline,” Attorney General Hanaway said. “Social media companies cannot hide behind algorithms or vague policies while their platforms are weaponized to glorify terror”
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Hanaway concluded that her office remains committed to supporting victims and ensuring that technology companies take responsibility for their influence.
“No corporation should profit from the spread of hate or human suffering,” she said.
A copy of the multistate letter urging Meta Platforms, Inc. can be read here.
