According to CNET, the Attorney General of New York state is investigating the possible role of social media websites such as 4chan and discord in the shooting of a supermarket in buffalo on May 14, which killed 10 people and injured 3 others.
New York attorney general Letitia James said on Wednesday that her office would investigate the online resources of the alleged gunman Payton Gendron "used to discuss and expand his intention and behavior in carrying out the attack".
James in a statement Discord, 4chan, 8chan and twitch were mentioned in particular. She said: "it is creepy and incomprehensible that a person can recklessly publish a detailed plan for the implementation of such hatred and then spread it to the world."
Amazon and discord, which own twitch, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Police reported that before the shooting, Gendron widely publicized racism on the Internet and discussed plans to intimidate primary schools, churches or other places where he thought a considerable number of blacks would be present.
James told NPR on Tuesday that the shooting at the top friendly markets supermarket on Jefferson Avenue was a domestic terrorism case, "and this racist theory was publicized by those social media, cable news and some elected officials".
Gendron broadcast the attack live on Twitter and posted a 180 page "Declaration" on the Internet detailing the so-called "great substitution theory", which falsely claimed that white Christians in the United States were being "replaced" by people of color, Jews, Muslims and other minorities.
A twitter spokeswoman said in an earlier statement that the website "adopts a zero tolerance policy for any form of violence and responds quickly to all incidents".
Some civil rights advocates have called on social media platforms such as twitter and Facebook to ban Posts promoting the great alternative theory, just like their attitude towards Holocaust denial.