Hundreds of teens flocked downtown on a Friday in late November after word of a takeover circulated online. The city allocated 700 officers, but it didn’t stop the violence from happening: a 14-year-old was shot and killed just blocks from where the city’s tree lighting ceremony occurred only hours earlier.
Social media plays a role in the teen takeovers, with the information typically spreading online, 6th Ward Alderman William Hall said. He introduced an ordinance Wednesday to help establish a system to combat the spread of the posts.
“When you have thousands of kids sharing where to meet up to do some violent acts, if those accounts were not sharing it, then the question becomes would the information have gotten out as fast?” Hall said.
Hall said he’s had conversations with Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, who has reached out to social media companies before, urging them to remove credible posts for planned teen takeovers.
“When reaching out to these companies to say, ‘hey we have credible evidence, help us,’ they just go silent,” Hall said. “So what we’re doing now is holding them accountable.”
How would the ordinance work if passed?
The ordinance allows CPD, the Mayor’s Office or the city’s Office of Emergency Management to identify and verify credible threats for a takeover and reach out to social media platforms to remove the posts.
The social media company would have six hours to remove the post, or provide written correspondence explaining their decision to not remove the post.
If the request goes unanswered, the city could fine the platform $50,000 and seek litigation.
Hall said the measure is not to limit free speech.
“It’s just to say that when our Superintendent is reaching out and saying, ‘hey, we have credible intelligence,’ we’re just asking companies to do their job,” he said. “We don’t want to continue to overwork our officers, we don’t want to overwork the budget and allow social media companies not to be held accountable or pay the bill.”
TikTok spokespeople would not comment on the ordinance, and referred NBC 5 to their law enforcement guidelines for removal, which said in part TikTok is committed to protecting the freedom of expression, privacy and other rights of its users.
Meta spokespeople did not respond.
The ordinance will go through the Committee on Public Safety before going in front of the full council for a vote. Hall is confident all members will be on board.
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