Access to Facebook Live to be restricted in wake of Christchurch massacre
Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook is exploring plans to restrict access to Facebook Live after an attack on two mosques in Christchurch that killed 50 people was live streamed on the platform.
In an open letter on the New Zealand Herald, Sandberg said: “We have heard feedback that we must do more – and we agree. In the wake of the terror attack, we are taking three steps: strengthening the rules for using Facebook Live, taking further steps to address hate on our platforms, and supporting the New Zealand community.
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“First, we are exploring restrictions on who can go Live depending on factors such as prior community standard violations.”
Sandberg said Facebook was also exploring ways to quickly spot edited versions of offending videos so they can be taken down.
She said Facebook had identified more than 900 videos showing portions of the attack, saying that people re-sharing and re-editing the video had made it more difficult for Facebook’s systems to block.
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“We are also investing in research to build better technology to quickly identify edited versions of violent videos and images and prevent people from re-sharing these versions,” she said.
“People with bad intentions will always try to get around our security measures. That's why we must work to continually stay ahead. In the past week, we have also made changes to our review process to help us improve our response time to videos like this in the future,” she added.
Sandberg said Facebook was working to ban hate groups and hate speech across its platform.