Facebook let conservative conference-goers play a virtual reality first-person shooter video game at Conservative Political Action Conference, just days after 17 students were shot dead in Parkland, Florida.The company ultimately pulled the game Friday after it came under scrutiny for showcasing gun violence at the conference. In a statement, Facebook’s VP of VR Hugo Barra said the company regretted including the game in light of the Parkland shooting.
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"There is a standard set of experiences included in the Oculus demos we feature at public events. A few of the action games can include violence. In light of the recent events in Florida and out of respect for the victims and their families, we have removed them from this demo. We regret that we failed to do so in the first place," Barra said in the statement, obtained by Mashable.The game they were showcasing is called "Bullet Train," according to Mashable. In it, the player gets to “physically interact with an array of weapons, from guns to grenades to missiles” and “blast through resistance forces.”Earlier this week, after suggesting (and then insisting that he wasn’t suggesting) arming teachers, President Donald Trump blamed the entertainment industry for America's gun violence epidemic, saying, "I’m hearing more and more people seeing the level of violence in video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.”
The already-embattled Facebook took on new criticism this week for failing to control the spread of conspiracy theories on their platform in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, including dubiously-sourced posts suggesting that the teenage survivors were “crisis actors.” The posts were so widespread that they overwhelmed both Facebook and Youtube’s trending controls, according to Wired.