Apr 17, 2017

Facebook apologizes for failing to quickly remove shooting video

Sara Fischer

Facebook apologized for failing to remove video of a man killing another man in Cleveland Sunday for nearly two hours. In a statement, the company said it's reviewing reporting flaws and looking into developing more sophisticated artificial intelligence techniques to prevent videos of this nature from being uploaded in the first place. Justin Osofsky, VP for Global Operations, said: "we know we need to do better."

Facebook said it did not receive a report about the first uploaded video, in which the suspect said he planned to carry out the murder, and only got a report about the second video, showing the shooting, more than an hour and 45 minutes after it was posted.

Facebook's timeline of Events:

  • 11:09AM PDT — First video, of intent to murder, uploaded. Not reported to Facebook
  • 11:11AM PDT — Second video, of shooting, uploaded.
  • 11:22AM PDT — Suspect confesses to murder while using Live, is live for 5 minutes.
  • 11:27AM PDT — Live ends, and Live video is first reported shortly after.
  • 12:59PM PDT — Video of shooting is first reported.
  • 1:22PM PDT — Suspect's account disabled; all videos no longer visible to public.

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Coronavirus dashboard

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  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 9 p.m. ET: 1,513,358 — Total deaths: 88,415 — Total recoveries: 329,329 — Map.
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  6. World: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to put politics aside "if you don’t want to have many more body bags.”
  7. Environment: COVID-19 is underscoring the connection between air pollution and dire outcomes from respiratory diseases.
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