You remember that Saturday in May. It was 2022, and the news out of a Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue felt like a punch to the gut. An 18-year-old in body armor, Payton Gendron, didn't just walk into a supermarket to kill ten Black people; he walked in to broadcast it. He wanted a show. And honestly, the buffalo mass shooting video became exactly what he intended: a digital virus that the internet still hasn't quite figured out how to kill.
Mainstream news outlets don't usually talk about the technical mechanics of the footage because it's grizzly, but understanding how it moved tells us everything about why the internet is still such a mess. Twitch actually killed the original stream in less than two minutes. That is fast. Like, incredibly fast for a live-moderation team. But it didn't matter.
Only 22 people were watching live. That's it. Yet, those few viewers—some likely tipped off on Discord or 4chan beforehand—were ready with screen-recording software. Within seconds of the stream being cut, the buffalo mass shooting video was already being re-uploaded to Streamable and Twitter. It’s kinda terrifying how prepared the "audience" was.
The legal fallout of the buffalo mass shooting video
New York isn't playing around with this anymore. Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James pushed for massive changes after the investigation into how the footage spread. Basically, they want to make it a crime to even create these videos if you’re the one doing the crime.
As of 2026, we’re seeing the long-term effects of that day in the courts. Gendron is already serving 11 life sentences without parole on the state level, but his federal trial is actually set to kick off in August 2026. The feds are still eyeing the death penalty. It's the first time Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice has really pushed for an execution, which is a huge deal given the political climate.
But back to the digital side of things.
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The state has been trying to pass laws like Senate Bill S1972, which targets the act of filming a violent felony to "promote or encourage" it. You’ve probably seen the headlines about the "tape delay" for livestreams too. The idea is to force platforms to have a buffer so AI or humans can kill a broadcast before the violence even starts. Critics, including groups like FIRE, say this kills the First Amendment. It’s a messy, complicated tug-of-war between public safety and free speech that hasn't been settled yet.
Why the footage keeps popping up
You’d think in 2026, with all our fancy AI, we could just delete a file and it’s gone. Nope.
Content moderators use something called "hashes." Think of a hash like a digital fingerprint for a video. Once a video is flagged, its fingerprint goes into a database (the GIFCT), and other platforms can automatically block it. But the people who want to share the buffalo mass shooting video are smart. They tweak it. They add a tiny bit of grain, they change the color balance by 1%, or they slightly crop the edges.
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Suddenly, the fingerprint doesn't match. The AI misses it.
The human cost of the "viral" nature
The families in Buffalo—people like the loved ones of Aaron Salter Jr., the security guard who died a hero—have had to live with the fact that their worst day is a permanent file on the web. It's not just "content" to them. It's a trauma that keeps getting re-uploaded.
Social media companies are facing massive lawsuits because of this. Reddit and YouTube are currently fighting legal battles in New York where plaintiffs argue the platforms' algorithms didn't just host the shooter's ideas but actively radicalized him. It’s a "product liability" argument. Essentially, the lawyers are saying, "Your app is a defective product that broke this kid’s brain."
Whether that sticks in court is anyone's guess, but it’s a shift from the old days when platforms could just hide behind Section 230 and say, "Hey, we just host the stuff, we don't make it."
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What you should actually know
If you’re searching for the video, you’re mostly going to find scams, malware, or investigators tracking extremist groups. Honestly, it’s a digital minefield. Most of the sites hosting it are the same ones that will infect your phone with a keylogger the second you click "play."
Here is the reality of where we are now:
- State Law is changing: New York is leading the charge in criminalizing the distribution of "homicide videos" created by perpetrators.
- Federal Trial: Keep an eye on August 2026. That’s when the federal case against Gendron starts, and the evidence regarding his livestreaming plans will be central.
- Platform Accountability: The "duty of care" for social media sites is being rewritten in real-time by these Buffalo-based lawsuits.
Instead of looking for the footage, look into the "Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund" or local community initiatives in the East Side. Supporting the neighborhood that was targeted does a lot more than giving a dead-end livestream another view. Stay informed about the legislative changes regarding Section 230, as those will determine what the internet looks like for the next decade.
Keep your digital footprint clean. Avoid clicking links to "leaked" footage on fringe forums, as these are primary vectors for identity theft and tracking by law enforcement agencies monitoring extremist activity. If you encounter the video on mainstream platforms, report it immediately to help the hashing algorithms stay updated.