Like it or not, and they may not like it, but Facebook is now being confronted with having to fix things.
That’s because they let a sick gunman put up a video on Facebook showing him walking up to a grandfather in Ohio and shooting and killing him. And while the smart techies at Facebook took it down eventually, it was there for two to three hours for all to see and for anyone to grab.
In a statement the morning after, Facebook called it a horrific crime. The statement also said:
We do not allow this kind of content on Facebook and we work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety."
What Facebook says may be true but they are smart enough to know that’s not good enough.
Their vice president of global operations basically said so, with a post saying “We know we need to do better.” And few if any will argue.
After all, the smart folks at Facebook are smart enough to figure out algorithms that analyze our posts and our comments and our likes to get us to click on things and buy things.
And if they can come up with ways to know how to spot fake news, they can come up with ways to not allow real life acts of murder and other gruesome crimes from being posted.
There are valid free speech concerns of course in whatever Facebook decides to do to better edit, restrict or censor, (call it what you want), this kind of content.
But Facebook has to consider if this sick killer in Ohio would even have done what he did, if he knew that he couldn’t so easily post it on a social media site like Facebook.