Florida school shooting: Teenage survivor says he's quitting Facebook because of death threats from 'NRA cultists'

Jacob Shamsian
Thursday 22 February 2018 13:21 GMT
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Florida shooting survivor asks Marco Rubio if he'll stop taking donations from the NRA
  • Cameron Kasky, one of the survivors of the Florida school shooting, is being harassed online.
  • He says he's quit Facebook because of death threats from anti-gun control advocates.
  • He and other survivors of the attack have been harassment targets since the attack.

Shortly after the February 14 school shooting at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, the survivors started getting harassed online.

One of them, Cameron Kasky, who is 17 years old, said he just quit Facebook over it, saying he's received death threats from anti-gun control activists.

"Temporarily got off Facebook because there's no character count so the death threats from the @NRA cultists are a bit more graphic than those on twitter," Kasky wrote on Twitter.

Kasky didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

A representative for Facebook told INSIDER that it removes harassing content as soon as its moderators are aware of it.

"We want Facebook to be a safe and respectful environment," a spokesperson wrote in an email. "Bullying and harassment run counter to those goals, and have no place on Facebook or Messenger. We remove this content as soon as we’re made aware of it."

Following the shooting, Kasky has been outspoken about changing gun laws to prevent school shootings. In an op-ed for CNN, he attacked the National Rifle Association, which lobbies for dismantling gun ownership regulations, and the Republican party, which allies itself with the NRA.

"I'm just a high school student, and I do not pretend to have all of the answers," Kasky wrote. "However, even in my position, I can see that there is desperate need for change — change that starts by folks showing up to the polls and voting all those individuals who are in the back pockets of gun lobbyists out of office."

Kasky visiting the school again with police officers

In the past week, survivors of the shooting — which took 17 lives — have organized to persuade politicians to pass stricter gun control regulations with the #NeverAgain movement. They're planning a March For Our Lives event in Washington, DC, on March 24.

Kasky isn't the only student-turned-protester who's experiencing online harassment. David Hogg, another survivor of the attack, is at the center of a false conspiracy theory circulating in right-wing media that he's a "crisis actor" paid to fight against gun control laws.

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