Facebook

Cleveland Shooting Highlights Facebook's Responsibility in Policing Depraved Videos

The site has been making adjustments to try to deal with criminal incidents and suicides

Steve Stephens' shooting of a random man on Easter Sunday has reignited the debate on how to better police criminal content on Facebook Live, NBC News reported.

The tool has been available for just one year, but Facebook already has run into issues because of it, as people have used the application to broadcast themselves committing gruesome crimes.

In Chicago, a man was tortured on Facebook live, while in Sweden, a gang rape was reportedly broadcast on the application. Suicides have also been shown on Facebook Live.

Facebook’s protocol for dealing with Facebook Live includes having a team on call at all hours to respond to reports of content that may violate the site’s community standards.  

On Monday, Facebook issued a statement online about Sunday's shooting, addressing how it handled the situation, along with a timeline of events, starting with when the first video "of intent to murder" was uploaded. In the statement, Facebook also said it is working to improve its reporting flows. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us