Facebook is yet again under pressure to deal with inappropriate posts, after a Thai man broadcast live video footage of himself killing his 11-month-old baby daughter. The man then killed himself. The footage was reportedly available for viewing for 24 hours before it was taken down.
Thai man hangs his daughter by the neck in Phuket
In the Facebook Live video, Wuttisan Wongtalay, 20, was reportedly seen hanging his baby daughter by her neck from the rooftop of a Phuket building.
Wontalay then committed suicide, but this was not part of the broadcast. The video was available for viewing on Wongtalay’s Facebook page for 24 hours until it was finally taken down at around 5 p.m. Bangkok time on Monday.
CNBC quotes a spokesperson for Facebook as saying this was an “appalling incident,” and that their hearts go out to the victim’s family. The statement added that there is “no place” for this kind of content on the social media platform and the video has now been removed.
According to a report by Yahoo tech, Wongtalay’s wife, 21-year-old Chiranut Trairat, has no anger against Facebook for broadcasting the video, or towards the users who shared it.
She said only her husband is to blame. According to Trairat, her husband has been abusive in the past and he reportedly spent two years behind bars before they began dating.
Copy of the Facebook Live video posted to YouTube
As reported by the BBC, a second copy of the video was uploaded to YouTube where it was flagged by the British news service and was removed within 15 minutes. The video had received 2,351 views at the time it was spotted by the BBC. A spokesperson for YouTube said that the platform has clear policies, outlining what is acceptable to post and that they quickly remove any videos that break the rules when flagged by users of the platform.
Murder and rape on Facebook Live
This incident follows the recent Facebook Live video, streamed by Steve Stephens, where he shot and killed 74-year-old Robert Goodwin.
That video was live on the social media platform for three hours before it was removed. Stephens then shot himself to death following a police chase.
Two other controversial videos were streamed on Facebook Live. One showed the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl by four or five youths, while the second showed the rape of a Swedish woman.
Facebook criticized for controversial live streamed content
Facebook has been heavily criticized for its handling of the controversial content and the company is attempting to address the problem. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly said at the company’s F8 conference recently that they have a lot of work to do but that they will do everything they can to prevent this kind of tragedy from being broadcast live on Facebook. The social media giant is also, reportedly, researching the use of artificial intelligence systems to search for photos and videos in order to flag inappropriate content.