Facebook Live Killings. Law Research Paper

Facebook Live Killings
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Facebook Live Killings
In the digital era, social media networks have become prominent, and almost every person with a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or other electronic device has at least one registered account. The common ones include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter. In particular, social media technology improves people’s connectivity and socialization worldwide. For example, by using Facebook, one can chat, post events, comment or like others’ posts, and stream or share videos. Moreover, Facebook has a live video streaming feature that enables registered users to record videos and share them with the world. However, the only thing that Facebook has not done yet is to improve its rescue missions for individuals who are in danger. Although the technology company filters what individuals share on the platform, it does less in saving people who are in distress. Facebook should not ignore its ethical duty of rescuing crime victims who share their situation in agony.
Facebook’s primary ethical duty is to rescue crime victims by reporting such situations to the law enforcement authorities and flagging live videos broadcasting immoral, inhuman, or illegal activities. Many Facebook users know that sharing live videos is one of the most effective ways of advertisement. Some of these videos go viral within a few minutes from when they are uploaded. For example, in April 2018, Rannita Williams, a mother of three, recorded and shared a live video while she was taken hostage by her ex-lover, Johnathan Robinson. In the live broadcast, Williams was heard telling Robinson, who was armed, to cool down. At this point, it appears as if the victim was buying time, expecting that Facebook will report the matter so that law enforcers would intervene and save her life. Unluckily, even after 80 minutes of sharing the live video, Williams was eventually shot and died on the spot. The video ended with the sounds of several gunshots (Palmer, 2019). During the Easter holiday of 2017, another crime perpetrator, Steve Stephens, drove around Cleveland while recording a live video on Facebook saying that he was on a death mission. After some time, Stephens attracted millions of viewers as he shot Robert Godwin, a 74-years-old man. Elizabeth Joh, California University’s law professor, affirmed that Facebook should rescue crime victims and avoid sharing videos showing criminals killing people (Isaac & Mele, 2017). Consequently, Facebook has an ethical duty of rescuing individuals in distress by reporting the matters to law enforcers immediately they happen and bringing down such videos as fast as possible.
Facebook and other social media networks should be thorough and proactive in censoring the content posted or shared by users on their websites. In reality, the company was founded to promote people’s connectivity and networking in different parts of the world. However, those users who might want to use social media platforms to share abusive, deceptive profiles, sexually suggestive and violent content, hate speech, nudity, and physical attacks on people, should not be given a room. One of the most effective methods to prevent such instances would be introducing a statement of responsibilities and rights to its users. Individuals should understand that messages or videos promoting criminal activities can land them in the hands of police officers. Second, Facebook should improve its algorithm for detecting and flagging bad content uploaded by users on its platform (Crawford & Gillespie, 2014). In reality, videos and messages shared by users should stay for about one minute before they appear for others to see. During that time, they should be scanned to ensure that only the right content is approved and displayed. Third, people who share bad content should be suspended, or even their accounts closed to warn others that such behavior is highly discouraged. Unless individuals learn the hard way, some of them might not change their behaviors.
The two primary safeguards that social media networks such as Facebook should implement to prevent the broadcasting of any acts of violence are artificial intelligence and continual monitoring. In reality, with over 1.8 billion users worldwide, monitoring the content uploaded appears impractical. However, Facebook said that it had plans of hiring around 3,000 people who will be responsible for reviewing live streaming videos and bring down the ones that promote violence (Li, 2017). For this strategy to be effective, live videos should be delayed a little to give time to humans and relevant technology to go through and censor bad content. The other most effective method that would be faster in flagging violence on social media platforms is artificial intelligence. Facebook software engineers should work in close collaboration with psychologists and linguistics to determine the common aspects of violence in different cultures. That way, they should develop an algorithm to detect and delete content and videos that do not comply with the company’s safety policies. Since Fa...