Simon Wiesenthal Center: Cold-blooded mass murder of ten African Americans by an 18-Year-old White racist part of disturbing trend created and fueled by social media

May 14, 2022

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a leading Jewish human rights NGO denounced the mass murder of 10 Blacks in Buffalo, New York by an 18 year-old white racist.
 
“We join all Americans in mourning this horrific crime, which was meticulously planned by the shooter,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper Associate Dean and Director of its Social Action Agenda.

“Tragically, our nation’s social and political culture is rife with hate and demonization that sets the stage for dehumanization of perceived enemies real and imagined and the Internet provides the space for incubating bigotry and terrorism.

“And we are not surprised by the hate-filled savagery or by the youth of the shooter. The Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate project notes that the Buffalo shooter and the attacker of the Poway, California synagogue are under 20 years old. Dylan Roof, who murdered African Americans at prayer was 21 years old.
 
“The Buffalo murderer’s 180-page manifesto shows he was inspired by Brenton Tarrant, the mass murderer of over 50 Muslims at prayer. He even streamed his killings on Twitch, the same social media platform used by a German youth trying to attack a Synagogue on Yom Kippur.
 
“Of course this heinous crime should be treated as domestic terrorism. But it is clear that young people infected by racism, anti-Semitism, and terrorism too easily find a home for their hatred to fester and grow. It is past due for social media giants to stop their focus on partisan politics and instead degrade the online capabilities of those individuals and groups who are grooming the next mass murderers.
 
“Such a murderous subculture must be dealt with now, with or without the companies who provide the platforms for such genocidal hatred,” Cooper concluded.

For further information contact the Center’s Communications department at pressinquiries@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).