What is Twitch? Company releases statement on Buffalo shooting

(NewsNation) — Twitch, a live video streaming service most commonly used to watch people play video games and other e-sport competitions, was used to livestream the deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, New York Saturday.

Amazon owns the platform and it can be downloaded as an app or accessed from your computer for free.

While it’s primarily for gamers, some channels don’t feature games — like the channel Peyton Gendron used on Saturday.

A Twitch spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the shooting in Buffalo was broadcast in real time and said the livestream was removed less than two minutes after the violence began.

The company says it is “devastated to hear about the shooting” and “has a zero tolerance policy against violence of any kind.”

Gendron, who allegedly posted the livestream, has been indefinitely suspended from Twitch.

The streaming service also says that employees are vigorously monitoring the platform to stop any users from attempting to repost any videos of the shooting.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said social media platforms should be held more responsible. It is not the first time a crime like this has been livestreamed in real time to anybody who logs on.

But can companies actually do anything to monitor this?

“Two minutes is actually pretty amazing to get this down that fast,” said CEO of ReachOut Technology Rick Jordan.

Jordan joined “Morning in America” to discuss Twitch’s response time to the shooting livestream and whether social media can prevent situations like this in the future.

“Where’s the balance between preserving free speech and the moderation of content?” Jordan questioned.

Jordan said the line between free speech and hate speech is razor-thin. He believes that there are things to be done that can prevent situations like these.

“It’s easy to point the finger at big tech.” Jordan said, “I mean, I’m a tech company myself, you know, there’s so much that we can do, but then it crosses over into the human elements, which is something that tech can’t really control.”