School massacre in Uvalde: Survivors also sue Meta and Activision
In conjunction with a gun manufacturer, Instagram and Call of Duty are said to have played a part in an 18-year-old shooting 21 people.
Advertising for Call of Duty Warzone
(Image: Activision)
Two years after a massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, several victims' families have sued not only the manufacturer of the weapon used, but also the IT companies Meta and Activision. The Texas Tribune reports that the three companies jointly ensured that the 18-year-old gunman saw firearms as a tool for solving problems. The manufacturer of the self-loading rifle used specifically targeted adolescents to promote its weapons, using platforms such as Instagram and games such as the Call of Duty series. The lawsuit against Meta and Activision was filed in a court in Los Angeles.
City compensates victims
The massacre on which the lawsuits are based took place on May 24, 2022 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. An 18-year-old opened fire there, killing 19 children and two teachers. Additional horror was caused by the reaction of the police, who only approached the shooter after 77 minutes and shot him dead. Following an investigation, the US Department of Justice published a 600-page final report in January detailing the comprehensive failures of the responsible law enforcement agencies. According to the report, some officers were not trained at all to respond to an active shooter. To prevent a trial, the city is paying 19 victims' families a total of two million US dollars.
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With the lawsuit, the bereaved families are now accusing Activision of desensitizing young people to acts of violence with games such as those in the Call of Duty series and encouraging them to reach for weapons they learn about in them, the newspaper writes. The company contradicted this in a statement: It was an unfounded accusation that would distract from the real problems. Furthermore, the proportion of people playing video games in many other countries is similar to that in the USA, without there being comparable rates of gun violence there. Millions of people play computer games without carrying out such bloody attacks.
The plaintiffs accuse the meta-platform Instagram of not enforcing guidelines against the advertising of weapons as stringently as other guidelines. For example, the weapons manufacturer Daniel Defense advertised the release of a part of Call of Duty on Instagram with a photo of a weapon as it was later used in Uvalde. The company also targeted young people in other ways. The plaintiff's lawyer also points out that the perpetrator bought the weapon that was later used just 23 minutes after midnight on his 18th birthday - from a company with a market share of less than one percent. Meta and Activision had also laid the foundation for this.
(mho)
