Graphic videos of the Charlie Kirk shooting spread online at an alarming speed and volume, highlighting challenges for tech companies in moderating violent content and the growing concern over how quickly such material can circulate on social media.

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Graphic videos of the shooting involving Charlie Kirk circulated rapidly on social media platforms, amassing millions of views within a short period. The incident demonstrates the difficulties technology companies face in moderating violent content, as traditional news organizations' gatekeeping roles diminish in the digital age.

Experts note that the lack of effective content moderation allows such material to reach wide audiences, including young viewers, often without warning. The emotional impact of repeated exposure to graphic footage is a growing concern, with some viewers reporting distress after viewing these videos.

Rapid surge of graphic Charlie Kirk videos raises concerns

Now, within minutes of a gunman opening fire on Kirk, videos of the deadly shooting flooded social media. You may have seen them yourself, the speed at which they spread. And their sheer quantity showed just how difficult it is for tech companies to monitor violent content. David Botter joins us now. He's a media writer for The Associated Press. Thank you very much for joining us here, David, to talk about this. You know, videos and images have long spread like wildfire on social media. That's not new. But it seems to be at an accelerated pace these days. So how are these graphic videos, like what we saw happen to Charlie Kirk, able to spread so much more quickly and easily today? I was kind of stunned on the day of the shooting about how quickly they did spread about millions of views within about an hour or so after he was shot. I spoke with a technology expert at one point in the day who has two teenage sons, and she said within a half hour after she was shot, she got a message from one of her sons saying, what can you tell me about Charlie Kirk's assassination? She said, well, he hasn't been announced that there was any death, that he's just been hit. And the son told her, have you seen the video, mom? There's no way that he survived something like that. Things just get up there and they spread very fast. People spread them very quickly. And any efforts at content moderation don't seem to be having any real effect. Well, I was going to ask you about that. Traditional news organizations have often judged the standards of what people can and what they should see. You write, though, that that role is changing now when it comes to graphic content. How is that the case? There's nobody really making that kind of determination that they are being the gatekeepers on social media the way traditional news media was. And when people are not seeing what they want to see on traditional news media, they go online. And oftentimes with these traditional news media outlets, they do provide some kind of warning. We have seen a lot of strong reactions to the video of the shooting. Can you talk about that emotional effect on people when those types of videos are left up without that kind of warning? I can't. I'm not an expert on it, but I can't help but think that if you're watching, particularly a very young person watching that graphic video over and over, different kind of angles, that it can't have an effect. I had to see some of them for my work that day, and a couple nights later, I had some bad dreams because of it. And I doubt that I'm the only one. It's just part of the backdrop of where we are today. David Botter, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, Nancy.

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