United States Vice President Kamala Harris launched a new task force dedicated to fighting online harassment and abuse, senior White House officials announced.
The task force, to tackle online harassment and abuse, convened for the first time on Thursday, bringing together officials from across the administration to discuss growing concerns about online hatred and its link to gender-based violence.
Within 180 days, the task force, co-chaired by the Gender Policy Council and the National Security Council, will offer recommendations on how the federal government, private sector, and civil society can better address online harassment and abuse, according to a report from The Hill.
Task Force Will Focus on Social Media Role
According to administration officials, the task force will not target specific platforms but rather the role of platforms and social media in general.
The National Security Council is coordinating the initiative and the White House Gender Policy Council, with Attorney General Merrick Garland and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy expected to attend the inaugural meeting on Thursday, Fox 29 reported.
Sloane Stephens, a Black American tennis star who has suffered racial abuse after losing matches, attended the meeting.
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The task force creation follows the Biden administration's decision last month to halt plans for a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) disinformation board just weeks after its announcement, citing strong opposition from Republicans and civil rights organizations.
Officials from the Biden administration said the new task force seeks to address unlawful online behaviors, such as cyber stalking, sharing of non-consensual private photos, and targeted harassment, while also being mindful of First Amendment issues.
Recent Mass Shootings Underscore Link Between Online Harassment, Extremist Acts
According to an administration official, recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, have highlighted the relationship between online harassment and extremist acts. The perpetrators were said to have uploaded hateful content and plotted their attacks online before committing the crimes.
Investigators of the racially motivated shooting of 13 people, 10 of them killed, at a Buffalo supermarket recovered a 600-page online document. It recorded gunman Payton Gendron's six months of activities leading to the fatal attack, per an NPR report.
The record, made on the Discord social chat network, illustrates a dedicated bigot preoccupied with the details of planning and carrying out a massacre.
The Texas Tribune reported that before the killings, the gunman in Uvalde threatened underage females on social media. According to the girls, Salvador Ramos could be cryptic, insulting, and frightening. He sent angry texts and photographs of guns and threatened to rape or abduct them if they won't reply the way he wanted, then laughed it off as a complete joke.
However, the girls and young women who conversed with the shooter over the internet in the months leading up to his premeditated slaughter of 19 children in a Uvalde elementary school rarely reported him. One teen reported Ramos on the social media app Yubo for his rude behavior, but no action was taken against him.
According to a Pew Research Center study, "Roughly four-in-ten Americans have experienced online harassment, with half of this group citing politics as the reason they think they were targeted."It also stated that sexual harassment and stalking are becoming more widespread forms of online abuse.
