House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Sunday said social media companies bear some responsibility for the racial hate-fueled mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y.
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Pelosi said she agreed with New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul that there has to be vigilance by both law enforcement and social media.
“I think the [New York] governor was right about the social media companies … having some responsibility,” Pelosi said. “But there has to be vigilance. Did no one know any of his friends, school, work, where he purchased any of this?
“People have to alert other authorities if they think that someone is on a path to terror — domestic terrorism, to violence of any kind, especially when you combine this severe gun violence with the racism that is clearly a part of it,” she said.
In the Buffalo bloodbath, an 18-year-old white gunman shot 10 people to death and wounded three others at a grocery store in a Black neighborhood before surrendering after what authorities called an act of "racially motivated violent extremism."
According to Pelosi, “we have to balance the free speech issues.”
“But you also have to be able to, when you see a prospect for violence” be able to act, she said.
“It's not just one thing, it's communities of similar thinking who gravitate toward each other,” Pelosi said. “That's what produced some other violence in our country as well, and America is a great country. Our freedom is so important to us, but that freedom also carries public safety with it, and we have to balance those.”
Pelosi also lamented the continuing rise in domestic violence.
“As the statistics have been showing us, there's more of a threat of domestic terrorism and violence than international global terrorism affecting our homeland,” she noted.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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