Facebook still can’t remove videos of the Buffalo bombing. Broadcast live on Twitch, the massacre perpetrated by a white supremacist was relayed on all social networks. Despite his efforts, Meta’s social network seems overwhelmed by events.
Facebook fails to stem the sharing and dissemination of videos of the buffalo bombing, report our colleagues from the New York Times. Social network users are still able to view images of the killings.
On Saturday May 14, 2022, an individual opened fire in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old man who identifies as a white supremacist, caused the death of 14 people. Most of the victims are of African American descent.
Facebook is helpless, the video of the massacre continues to be shared
Worse, Facebook sometimes displays ads alongside images of the attack. It is therefore possible to monetize publications. The social network also leaves Internet users post links relaying to videos of the killing. It is also possible to find snippets of the video by going through the search engine. Visibly overwhelmed, Facebook even sometimes recommends search terms related to the attack.
As a reminder, the killer has livestreamed the massacre on Twitch. Unsurprisingly, the images were massively relayed on the web, despite the moderation efforts made by the platforms. Twitch indeed promptly deleted Gendron’s channel.
Despite its algorithms boosted with artificial intelligence and the deployment of human moderators, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, seems powerless in the face of the proliferation of videos. However, the social network has implemented measures. If you type the keyword massacre in the search engine, a warning will appear on the screen.
“Do you really want to continue? This search may contain graphic or violent content that may offend the sensibilities of some people”, warns Facebook. We were able to see this alert only by typing “massacre”. Terms such as “killing”, “attack” or even “mass shooting” are exempt.
Contacted by the New York Times, a spokesperson assures that Facebook is doing its best to protect its users. “Our goal is to protect people who use our services from coming across this horrible content, even if bad actors are out to draw attention to it”says Andy Stone, spokesperson for Meta.
This is not the first time that Facebook has struggled to stem the spread of a video showing an attack. In 2019, the social network let Brenton Tarrant, an Australian extremist, livestream the massacre at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, on Facebook Live. It took 17 minutes for the video to be cut.
Subsequently, the sequence was massively shared by Internet users. Within days, Facebook had deleted 1.5 million posts containing footage of the killing. Mirroring Twitter and YouTube, the social network already seemed unable to contain the flood of shares. Three years later, the platform falls back into the same traps.
Source : New York Times
