FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 24, 2024

Contact: Michael Clauw, mclauw@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. wrote to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan requesting a meeting to discuss his platform’s hosting of instructional videos on how to make “ghost guns”—untraceable, privately made, and often 3D-printed firearms. DA Bragg’s letter prominently cites an investigation from Campaign for Accountability’s Tech Transparency Project (TTP), which found that YouTube pushed 3D-printed gun content to a test account for a boy interested in video games. Bragg says this pathway is playing out in homes across New York City.

In response to DA Bragg’s letter, CfA Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith released the following statement:

“It is disheartening but not surprising that DA Bragg is seeing cases before his office of young people who learned how to make ghost guns on YouTube. The DA’s letter today is an important reminder that unsafe platforms can lead to unsafe streets. YouTube should view this a wake-up call to immediately enforce its policies, remove this dangerous content, and ensure its algorithms are not pushing it to users, particularly kids.”

Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.