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White House launches task force to study link between online



The White House will announce a new task force on Thursday that will examine the links between online harassment, mass shootings, and violence against women and members of the LGBTQ community.

The move comes after two lone wolf snipers were linked to harassing internet activities prior to the massacres in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas.

Charged with killing 10 people in the racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket, Payton Gendron has published a lengthy manifesto outlining his beliefs and describing his descent into the world of online extremism.

Salvador Ramos, who killed 19 children and two students at an elementary school in Uvalde, was sending cryptic, angry and frightening messages to women, including some women he did not know. When she didn’t respond, she threatened to rape or kidnap them, then pretended it was a joke.

A senior administration official said the task force will examine “the link between misogyny and radicalization online”, adding that the Buffalo attack “highlights the link” between radicalization online and committing acts of violence.

Vice President Kamala Harris will unveil the task force at a White House event that will feature Attorney General Merrick Garland and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, both of whom will serve on the panel.

She will co-chair the Gender Policy Council and the National Security Council task force created by President Biden.

As a result, the panel will make recommendations to federal agencies, state governments, social media companies, schools and other private organizations to address online harassment. It will include plans to deal with different types of online terrorism, including harassment, revenge porn, cyber-harassment and deep fraud, and how they link to offline violence.

“These recommendations will focus on research to better understand the scope of the problem, as well as increase support for survivors of online harassment and abuse,” he told reporters.

He said the task force will publish recommendations for the private sector, including social media companies, but will not focus on a specific online platform.

Administration officials touted the panel as one of Mr Biden’s few efforts to protect women, calling the panel one of the most aggressive attempts to stop online harassment in the United States.

The creation of the task force was a campaign promise from Mr Biden, who posted a few details about it on his website shortly after he was elected in November 2020.

In recent months, social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google have faced intense pressure to curb online harassment and extremist content. Companies have taken some steps to clean up their platforms, but the problem is still a big one on the internet.





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