IN WAKE OF “FACEBOOK KILLER,” SOCIAL NETWORK SAYS IT WILL REVIEW ITS POLICIES

Crime feed writes

Following the shocking murder of an elderly man in Cleveland that was posted to Facebook, the company announced that it has launched a review of how it handles violent videos.

Following the execution, Stephens posted explanations for his deranged behavior. “I f—ed up,” he said. “I’m at the point where I snapped … I got a lot of built up anger and frustration. All my life I’ve been a monster.”

As the post was shared, many people posted comments including “please take down this video” and “please have respect for this innocent man killed in cold blood.”

The world’s largest social network will be looking for ways to make it easier for people to report such videos and to speed up the process of reviewing items once they are reported, Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s vice president for global operations and media partnerships, said in a statement.

“As a result of this terrible series of events, we are reviewing our reporting flows to be sure people can report videos and other material that violates our standards as easily and quickly as possible. In this case, we did not receive a report about the first video, and we only received a report about the second video — containing the shooting — more than an hour and 45 minutes after it was posted. We received reports about the third video, containing the man’s live confession, only after it had ended. We disabled the suspect’s account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report about the murder video, and two hours after receiving a report of any kind. But we know we need to do better.”

Just an hour after Stephens killed himself following a short police chase, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg spoke publicly and commented about the event. “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Robert Godwin, Sr., and we have a lot of work — and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening,” he said.