X blocks searches for Colt Gray, 14 year old Apalachee shooter as users report receiving error messages while other searches for the Georgia gunman seemingly continue to show up amid issues of fake and misleading accounts, images, and allegations in heightened searched story.
Freedom of speech or lack of? Or just a glitch? In a move intimating recent fissures involving Elon Musk and other social media stalwarts, as to what and how much to share on their platforms, amid allegations of censoring, X, formerly known as Twitter as of the last hour just blocked searches for Georgia school shooter, Colt Gray who shot and killed 4 on their platform.
Users attempting to look for the 14-year-old alleged gunman’s name on the social media site were being met with an error message which read, ‘Something went wrong. Try reloading’.
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A message at the bottom of the screen adds: ‘Something went wrong, but don’t fret — it’s not your fault.’
It remained unclear if the sudden notice was deliberate or a glitch.
Attempts to search for other keyword searches in relation to Wednesday’s Apalachee shooting continued to remain open, including arbitrary searches such as ‘Apalachee shooting,’ ‘Apalachee school,’ or ‘Georgia school shooting.’
Particularly intriguing, searches for part of the alleged shooter’s name with part of searches continued to show up (at least for this publisher), for example: ‘Colt Gray TikTok’ or ‘Colt Gray mother’.
Musk’s platform has previously blocked users from searching Taylor Swift‘s name in a bid to clamp down on sexually explicit deepfakes of the star. As of Thursday late morning, the CEO had yet to comment on the situation.
The ban on the search may be in response to a deluge of erroneous or even fabricated accounts portending to belong to the alleged gunman, along with images and alleged social media posts – including a TikTok account the gunman is alleged to have maintained, but yet to be verified (and since removed): @coltgray679.
Georgia authorities yet to release mugshot or confirm images appearing on social media
Of note, Georgia authorities have not released a mugshot of the alleged student gunman and have declined to confirm any photographs circulating online of the purported shooter, nevermind alleged social media profiles of the 14 year old.
It may be in this stead and ongoing flux of incoming and yet to be necessarily validated reports that the platform amid heightened search and user overflow may have sought to curtail users use of the platform. At least in the interim.
Colt was arrested following Wednesday’s mass shooting in which four were shot dead, including two school teachers and two students were shot dead and another 9 hospitalised and 30 injured.
To date no known murder motive was immediately known.
The 14 year old whose relatives have sought to defend the teen amid reports of his parents ongoing arrests, addiction and domestic violence is to now be tried as an adult.
