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• DJ Uvalde Victims' Families Allege Gun Maker Advertised to Shooter Through Instagram, Call of Duty -- 3rd Update, from 1 hour ago by Dow Jones

  1 hour ago by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: MSFT, META
  
  By Elizabeth Findell
  
  Families of children killed in the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas filed lawsuits Friday accusing companies including the maker of Call of Duty videogames, Instagram and an AR-15 rifle manufacturer of colluding to market military-style semiautomatic guns to minors.
  

• DJ Uvalde Victims' Families Allege Gun Maker Advertised to Shooter Through Instagram, Call of Duty -- 2nd Update, from 1 hour ago by Dow Jones

  1 hour ago by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: MSFT, META
  By Elizabeth Findell Families of children killed in the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas filed lawsuits Friday accusing companies including the maker of Call of Duty videogames, Instagram and an AR-15 rifle manufacturer of colluding to market military-style semiautomatic guns to minors. The two lawsuits were filed in state courts in California and Texas by dozens of family members and survivors from the Uvalde school shooting, in which 19 children and two adults died. They target more than a dozen companies, including Daniel Defense and several gun-accessory companies, videogame publisher Activision and its parent company Microsoft, and Instagram and its parent company Meta. The suits allege that Georgia-based Daniel Defense, an AR-15 rifle company, marketed specifically to young people, in part through Call of Duty, a shooter videogame that the suit says has featured the company's rifles. Daniel Defense also marketed the gun to minors through its own Instagram page and posts by gun influencers, the suits allege. Representatives for Daniel Defense, Microsoft, and Meta didn't immediately return requests for comment. Gun makers are shielded from most civil suits because of a 2005 federal law that protects them from lawsuits if their products are used in a crime. The suits filed Friday focused on the marketing and advertising of guns to children, which isn't protected under the 2005 law. The suit against Daniel Defense filed in Texas, says that the company sent an email to Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos weeks before he turned 18. The company had noticed he had visited its website and had selected, but not bought, an AR-15 rifle. "Your DDM4v7 is ready in your cart!" the email read, according to the suit, encouraging Ramos to return to purchase it. Minutes after he turned 18, he did, carrying out the school massacre with that gun eight days later. The suit alleges that the company email to Ramos was evidence of a targeted strategy to "groom" underage people to buy their guns. Before the rifle purchase, Ramos was an avid Call of Duty player who would browse the Internet for weapons featured in the game, the suit alleges. Ramos also spent hours a day on Instagram, where he followed gun content including posts by Daniel Defense featuring the rifle he ultimately bought, according to the suit. Instagram policies don't allow paid gun advertisements, but there are no limitations on posts by gun companies or influencers that spread organically, according to the suit. Social-media posts by Daniel Defense and other weapons companies frequently use Call of Duty hashtags and encourage players of the game to tag each other to spread their posts, the suit says. The lawyer leading the effort is Josh Koskoff, who two years ago secured a $73 million settlement against gun maker Remington for families of children killed in the mass shooting at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Internal company documents obtained in discovery during that lawsuit revealed that Remington had an agreement with Activision to place its guns in Call of Duty games. Koskoff said Friday's suits are an extension of the Sandy Hook effort by focusing on how gun companies have been marketing their products. "It's the logical next step to look into the ecosystem that underwrites the gun industry and enables it," he said. The lawsuits were filed on the second anniversary of the Uvalde massacre, the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in a decade. Koskoff's clients earlier this week sued Texas state police for failing to intervene earlier to stop the shooter. The families also announced a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde over the police response. -- Cameron McWhirter contributed to this article Corrections & Amplifications This article was corrected at 5:51 p.m. ET. The two lawsuits by the families of children killed in the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas were filed in state courts. The original version incorrectly said the suits were filed in federal court. (END) Dow Jones Newswires May 24, 2024 17:27 ET (21:27 GMT)

• DJ Uvalde Victims' Families Allege Gun Maker Advertised to Shooter Through Instagram, Call of Duty -- Update, from 1 hour ago by Dow Jones

  1 hour ago by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: MSFT, META
  By Elizabeth Findell Families of children killed in the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas filed lawsuits Friday accusing companies including the maker of Call of Duty videogames, Instagram and an AR-15 rifle manufacturer of colluding to market military-style semiautomatic guns to minors. The two lawsuits were filed in state courts in California and Texas by dozens of family members and survivors from the Uvalde school shooting, in which 19 children and two adults died. They target more than a dozen companies, including Daniel Defense and several gun-accessory companies, videogame publisher Activision and its parent company Microsoft, and Instagram and its parent company Meta. The suits allege that Georgia-based Daniel Defense, an AR-15 rifle company, marketed specifically to young people, in part through Call of Duty, a shooter videogame that the suit says has featured the company's rifles. Daniel Defense also marketed the gun to minors through its own Instagram page and posts by gun influencers, the suits allege. Representatives for Daniel Defense, Microsoft, and Meta didn't immediately return requests for comment. Gun makers are shielded from most civil suits because of a 2005 federal law that protects them from lawsuits if their products are used in a crime. The suits filed Friday focused on the marketing and advertising of guns to children, which isn't protected under the 2005 law. The suit against Daniel Defense filed in Texas, says that the company sent an email to Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos weeks before he turned 18. The company had noticed he had visited its website and had selected, but not bought, an AR-15 rifle. "Your DDM4v7 is ready in your cart!" the email read, according to the suit, encouraging Ramos to return to purchase it. Minutes after he turned 18, he did, carrying out the school massacre with that gun eight days later. The suit alleges that the company email to Ramos was evidence of a targeted strategy to "groom" underage people to buy their guns. Before the rifle purchase, Ramos was an avid Call of Duty player who would browse the Internet for weapons featured in the game, the suit alleges. Ramos also spent hours a day on Instagram, where he followed gun content including posts by Daniel Defense featuring the rifle he ultimately bought, according to the suit. -- Cameron McWhirter contributed to this article Corrections & Amplifications This article was corrected at 5:51 p.m. ET. The two lawsuits by the families of children killed in the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas were filed in state courts. The original version incorrectly said the suits were filed in federal court. (END) Dow Jones Newswires May 24, 2024 17:22 ET (21:22 GMT)

• DJ Uvalde Victims' Families Allege Gun Maker Advertised to Shooter Through Instagram, Call of Duty -- WSJ, from 1 hour ago by Dow Jones

  1 hour ago by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: MSFT, META
  By Elizabeth Findell Families of children killed in the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas filed lawsuits Friday accusing companies including the maker of Call of Duty videogames, Instagram and an AR-15 rifle manufacturer of colluding to market military-style semiautomatic guns to minors. The two lawsuits were filed in state courts in California and Texas by dozens of family members and survivors from the Uvalde school shooting, in which 19 children and two adults died. They target more than a dozen companies, including Daniel Defense and several gun-accessory companies, videogame publisher Activision and its parent company Microsoft, and Instagram and its parent company Meta. The suits allege that Georgia-based Daniel Defense, an AR-15 rifle company, marketed specifically to young people, in part through Call of Duty, a shooter videogame that the suit says has featured the company's rifles. Daniel Defense also marketed the gun to minors through its own Instagram page and posts by gun influencers, the suits allege. Representatives for Daniel Defense, Microsoft, and Meta didn't immediately return requests for comment. -- Cameron McWhirter contributed to this article Corrections & Amplifications This article was corrected at 5:51 p.m. ET. The two lawsuits by the families of children killed in the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas were filed in state courts. The original version incorrectly said the suits were filed in federal court. (END) Dow Jones Newswires May 24, 2024 17:18 ET (21:18 GMT)

• DJ Nvidia Is the Clear Beneficiary of AI. The Benefit Is Less Clear for Everyone Else. -- Barrons.com, from 2 hours ago by Dow Jones

  2 hours ago by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: GOOGL, MSFT, NFLX, NVDA, AMZN, GOOG
  
  By Bill Alpert
  
  The world is pouring buckets of money into Nvidia's artificial intelligence -- the investors who pushed its stock above $1,000 on Wednesday, and the data center builders who boosted their spending five-times in Nvidia's latest quarter. Their wheelbarrows of money line up into next year, as they all jostle to invest in what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calls "AI factories."