• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 13, 2023

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday questioned the major social media platforms about their efforts to identify and remove posts linked to violence and terrorism.

“In the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks in Israel, there have been reports of growing antisemitism and Islamophobia, including threats of violence against Jewish and Muslim people and institutions,” she said in letters to Google, Meta, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Reddit, and Rumble.

She added that her office is “deeply concerned” over reports that terrorist groups and sympathizers are “disseminating calls for violence and other materials that may incite violence against Jewish and Muslim people and institutions.”

James wrote that her office wants “to better understand” how the companies are ensuring their platforms are not “being used to incite violence and further terrorist activities,” and asked recipients to explain how they are “identifying, removing, and blocking the re-uploading of such content.”

The letter comes nearly one week after Hamas attacked Israel. During that time, social media platforms have been flooded with disinformation and propaganda about the war, including genuine and fake video footage depicting violent attacks.

Much of that material appears to violate tech platforms' content moderation policies, but has nevertheless spread virally through X -- which recently ousted many employees who were devoted to policing posts -- and other services.

Meta said Friday that it has created a special operations center to respond to war-related posts.

“Since the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel on Saturday, and Israel’s response in Gaza, expert teams from across our company have been working around the clock to monitor our platforms,” the company stated.

Meta also said Hamas is banned from the platform because it's designated by the government as a terrorist organization.

“We remove praise and substantive support of them when we become aware of it, while continuing to allow social and political discourse -- such as news reporting, human rights related issues, or academic, neutral and condemning discussion,” the company said.

James is asking the tech platforms to answer a host of questions related to their content policies -- including how the companies are addressing posts calling for violence against Jewish and Muslim people.

She is requesting answers by October 20.