One tech CEO thinks AI girlfriends are the next billion-dollar biz. Meanwhile, a tragedy: an 81-year-old man kills an Uber driver he mistook for a scammer. Plus, what your hotel card key reveals about you.
In the wake of the Texas school shooting, social media must do better
The tragic mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas highlights an issue we’ve come across before and it doesn’t seem to go away: Social media is shirking its responsibility in mass shootings and other tragedies. Social media has to make changes, and you and I can force them to do it.
We now know that the Texas school shooter, Salvador Ramos, was very active on social media before going on a rampage, killing at least 19 students and two teachers. Stories were circulating that the posts were public. Texas Governor Greg Abbott held a press conference Wednesday regarding the shooting, and he brought up the shooter’s Facebook activity.
“There was no meaningful forewarning of this crime other than what I’m about to tell you,” Abbott said. “As of this time, the only information that was known in advance was posted by the gunman on Facebook approximately 30 minutes before reaching the school.”
The governor listed the three posts: “I’m going to shoot my grandmother” and “I shot my grandmother.” About 15 minutes before the gunman reached the school, “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.”
It turns out that the posts were direct messages between Ramos and another Facebook user. Andy Stone, whose LinkedIn profile lists him as Communications Director at Meta, responded to a Twitter user that the messages were “private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred.” He also wrote that Meta is working with law enforcement in the investigation.
There’s no excuse that Meta did not take immediate action with these direct messages. Meta failed. Children and their teachers died.
Ramos’ frightening Instagram messages
The social media connection doesn’t end there. The Daily Dot reported that after the shooting, screenshots of Ramos’ Instagram account were being shared. Instagram has since removed the account — another failure in social media.
Ramos posted an Instagram story depicting an image of two AR-style semi-automatic rifles days before the shooting. He tagged a girl in the story, who then posted screenshots to her own story of a private conversation with Ramos.
“I’m about to,” Ramos wrote. The girl, reportedly a minor, asked what he was going to do. He responded, “I’ll tell you before 11.” Ramos then wrote that he would text her in an hour and demanded that she respond.
Ramos then wrote, “I have a little secret I want to tell you,” followed by a smiley face emoji covering its mouth. “Be thankful I tagged you.” He ended the conversation with, “Ima air out.”
Tesla tragedy: In Washington, a motorcyclist died after a Tesla on autopilot rear-ended him at high speed. The driver said he trusted the Tesla to drive for him while he was scrolling on his phone. Now he’s charged with vehicular homicide. So, so avoidable. Autopilot is not “self-driving;” it’s just glorified cruise control and lane assist.