1984? New City Mayor Eric Adams calls for Online Platforms to Use AI to Censor

Like clockwork, politicians have used the Buffalo shooting that took place on May 14, 2022 to justify their power grabs. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams have been no exception to this trend. During an appearance on PIX11’s Morning Show, Adams called for increased social media censorship. 

On this show, host Hazel Sanchez asked Adams what measures could be taken to regulate social media.

“Governor Hochul, she was on PIX11, demanding social media platforms be held accountable. Now, you’ve been calling for that since the suspected Brooklyn subway shooter, Frank James, allegedly posted racist rants online,” Sanchez stated. “But social media’s been around and unregulated for a long time. So what kind of change can you see happening?” 

In his response, Adams declared that it was time for social media platforms to start using “artificial intelligence to identify words, identify phrases, to immediately remove and censor some of this information.”

Adams used the example of the censorship measures used against former President Donald Trump. He stated, “We did it to Donald Trump on Twitter. He was dangerous to the country. So why aren’t we doing it to the everyday people who are using it and is dangerous to our neighborhoods and communities?”

In addition, the New York City Mayor drew parallels between previous demands he made for social media platforms to censor several rap genres on social media. Adams declared, “The type of violence that’s being promoted on social media is beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed before.” 

“Particularly in some of the drill music that actually taunts and threaten people. There’s a direct correlation. That’s the type of social media monitoring we believe the social media companies should do,” Adams stated. 

In early 2022, Adams manifested his concerns with drill rap, a subgenre of rap that is popular in various urban centers due to how its lyrics portray firearms and violence. 

“We pulled Trump off Twitter because of what he was spewing,” Adams previously stated. “Yet we are allowing music, displaying of guns, violence, we’re allowing it to stay on these sites.”

“We are going to pull together the social media companies, and state that you have a civic and corporate responsibility.”

While gun violence in America is a major concern, it simply doesn’t justify the state carrying out anti-freedom measures. Many of the social problems we face are the result of the breakdown in civil society that the state itself has created. 

Let’s be honest here: Words don’t lead to violence. It’s people who ultimately pull the trigger. Moreover, banning and regulating guns will do nothing in these cases either and create the negative unintended consequence of leaving law-abiding people defenseless against real criminals. 

If we want to truly solve these problems, the US will need to have uncomfortable discussions about the socio-economic breakdown taking place nationwide — A development that the ruling class has largely created.

Sadly, politicians don’t really care for self-reflection and prefer to just continue exploiting crises for their own gain.