The victims of the Uvalde school shooting are suing Activision Blizzard King (aka Microsoft) and Meta, alleging that the two companies played a significant role in the school tragedy.
On May 24, 2022, more than two years ago, a tragic incident occurred in the Robb Elementary School building in Uvalde, Texas, when an 18-year-old teenager who was a student there fatally wounded nineteen students and two teachers and injured seventeen others with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. The families of the victims recently reached a $2 million settlement with the Texas city, but are now taking legal action against the major corporations over the incident.
CBS News reported that the families of the 19 innocent victims have sued Activision and Meta, citing aggressive video games like Call of Duty. Mark Zuckerberg’s company is being taken to court over Instagram, as the families believe that this social platform may have been the spark in the killer’s mind. Attorney Josh Koskoff, who filed the lawsuit, says Activision, Instagram and Daniel Defense, the maker of the AR-15, are conspiring to attract insecure adolescent boys. The lawsuit says Activision and Meta have increased the ability of gun manufacturers to market to children so they will buy guns.
The shooter was a Call of Duty fan who downloaded Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in November 2021. One of the AR-15s in the game was the same model used in the shooting. The gun was often advertised on Instagram, and he visited the site several times. Koskoff criticized Meta for its relentless focus on generating traffic and attention, so Instagram drew a connection between Zuck’s company, a teenager, and a gun company.
Meta didn’t respond, but Activision did (“A tragic event has occurred, but millions of users around the world are enjoying the games without committing acts of violence”).
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