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During investigations surrounding the mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, authorities unveiled the disturbing online history of the alleged gunman, Salvador Ramos.
According to Insider, Salvador Ramos was a user of a French social-media app called Yubo, where he corresponded with several other teens. Allegedly, Ramos sent users photos of firearms, threatened violence against them, and stated his plan to execute a mass shooting in Uvalde.
The Yubo user history of Salvador Ramos
Launched by TWELVE APP in 2015, Yubo allows users to livestream videos with 10 friends. As per CNN, the app's popularity increased significantly during the pandemic, with 99% of its 60 million users being under the age of 25.
In December 2020, Yubo CEO Sacha Lazimi claimed the app had rigorous methods of enforcing safety.
He said:
‘[Yubo is] one of the leaders in terms of real-time moderation.”
He added:
“The app also sends real-time notifications to users to tell them why something was dangerous or inappropriate. The company also uses human moderators to look through content that has been reported by users or by the Yubo algorithm.”
Despite safety measures outlined by Lazimi, several users discussed the unnerving interactions they had with Salvador Ramos on the app. The 18-year-old reportedly threatened violence against several users.
CNN reported that in one interaction, Salvador Ramos sent a user a $2000 receipt for a gun he had purchased online.
The user responded:
“Guns are boring.”
According to reports, another user, a 17-year-old who did not disclose her identity, told Sky News that Ramos would threaten sexual assault and kidnapping. These threats emerged especially when they did not respond to his messages.
The girl alleges that Ramos was angry when she did not reply to a Valentine’s day text.
She claims that he said:
“Go jump off a bridge.”
The New York Post also reported that due to Ramos’s threats, users began nicknaming him “school shooter,” foreshadowing his attack on the Uvalde elementary school.
One user claimed:
“People would join… be like, ‘Oh, hey, look it’s Yubo’s school shooter. He never tried to shut down that nickname, he seemed almost proud of it, you know.”
Many users did not take these claims seriously. One 15-year-old user told CNN that Salvador Ramos even texted her after shooting his grandmother as he prepared to attack Robb Elementary.
While she initially thought he was joking, after the shooting, she told reporters:
“I added everything up and it made sense now… I was just too dumb to notice all the signals he was giving.”
While Lazimi claimed the app had various safety measures, this has been discredited by Yubo users. 18-year-old Hannah from Ontario told CNN that she had reported Salvador Ramos for multiple threats, including claiming that he would attack a school. However, the alleged gunman only received a temporary ban from the site.
The response from Yubo
After the shooting, Yubo came under massive scrutiny from social media sites for neglecting the behavior of Salvador Ramos.
The App made an official statement:
“We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable loss and are fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation.”
This is not the only time the app has been linked to criminality and predatory behavior. CNN reported that authorities have always warned against potential dangers associated with the platform. Men across Florida, Kentucky, and New Jersey have been arrested for exchanging inappropriate texts with children on the app. In Indiana, a Yubo user became a suspect in the murder of two teenage girls he had been corresponding with on the site.
Ramos' history of violence and sketchy behavior
Yubo was not the only app where Ramos made threats and expressed desires to perpetrate violence. A student who attended high school with Salvador Ramos, Keanna Baxter, revealed that Ramos had a long history of volatile behavior.
Baxter told the New York Post:
“He dated my ex-friend. And then they broke up. And then he tried to date me after that, but I told him no. Because he always had this kind of eerie sense about him.”
She added:
“(my friend) told me that he was scary. Like he would get super violent and then he would lose his temper, she would literally be scared for her life, basically.”
Baxter told the New York Post that Salvador Ramos had a long online history. Reportedly, he had spread a video of himself holding a dead cat. Another student, Crystal Foultz, claimed that he would post TikTok videos of punching walls and threatening to fight people.
Considering Salvador Ramos continually expressed his violent intentions across social media sites, many netizens are claiming it was a crime that his comments were ignored.
While many are focusing on the debate surrounding American gun laws, others are also speaking up on Ramos' mental health, claiming that people like Salvador Ramos need to be provided with proper professional care. According to The EducationWeek, the attack in Uvalde marked the 27th school shooting of 2022.
