Social networking platform Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg has said that the company was looking to place a restriction on which users can go live on its platform. The restriction is being considered in the aftermath of the New Zealand Christchurch terrorist attack.
After the events of Christchurch attack where one gunman killed 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand while live streaming the horrendous incident, Facebook had taken down the video. But it was live streamed nonetheless and it was seen by many people and some among them even downloaded it. After taking down the video, Facebook identified more than 900 different videos on its platform showing parts and portions of the massacre.
In a blog post, Facebook said that it has used its platform’s existing Artificial Intelligence to identify and remove the videos and other content of the massacre. It also said that it was identifying and removing hate groups in Australia and New Zealand after the massacre. According to Facebook, the company will now monitor who can go live on Facebook, and users who want to go ‘Live’ would have to meet with a criteria set by the social networking platform. The criteria depends upon factors like prior community standard violations and various other regulations.
Last week, the company said that 24 hours after the massacre, it had removed more than 1.5 million videos on a global scale which had footage of the New Zealand terrorist attack. And it was this week when one of the main Muslim community representing groups in France, said that it was suing Facebook and YouTube. It accused the social platforms of inciting violence by allowing the video to stream on their respective platforms.
It is not the first time Facebook is facing challenges over privacy issues. Previously, Facebook was embroiled in multiple data breaches last year. Although the company has time and again claimed that it is doing its best to strengthen privacy on its platform, it has been found guilty repeatedly of doing the exact opposite. More recently, it was discovered that Facebook was violating the code of conduct by paying teenagers to let it spy on them. Right after that, it was reported that Facebook’s employees had passwords for more than 500 million user accounts worldwide.
Last week, Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp urged people for the second time to delete their Facebook accounts saying that such companies are not equipped to make decisions but people give them the power, which is a bad thing.
For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date using the Gadget Bridge Android App.