Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms to date and it is known for it competing features. It continues to add new features for its users to explore, but with something new and fun comes something dark.
Facebook launched it’s live video feature August 2015 only available to verified accounts, but was available for every user April 2016. Since then live videos from celebrities communicating with fans and people just sharing their everyday lives have been seen on the social media platform. This is the platform that gave us a live video of a woman hysterically laughing about a Chewbacca mask only a few month after the launch.
This feature also gives users the opportunity to save the video and post it to Facebook, which is how we are all still able to see and laugh along with Candace Payne for a solid four minutes of her infectious laugh. The live video launch was a great move by the company, or so a lot of users thought until they were exposed to various violent acts.
Along with funny videos came along with violent videos that Facebook has not really been able to keep under control. Users have been unveiled to content such as suicides, suicide attempts, murders and rape to name only some. Videos as such have gone viral to many people on the internet from shares and by making headlines in media newsrooms.
The founder of the platform, Mark Zuckerberg, has spoken out about these horrific incidents in May 2017 claiming the company would do more to respond more promptly to violence. He added 3,000 community operations people to the 4,000 plus he already had on the team according to BuzzFeed.
Since then, a new video surfaced the week before the Super Bowl that has gained media attention across the nation when the video was released involving abuse and child pornography. The video was shared amongst thousands of users until police urged people to stop, even if it is to catch the man in the wrong. Facebook also stepped in to stop users from uploading and sharing the content.
Although it is hard to predict when something like this will happen, I wonder how Instagram has not faced the same damage since the Facebook-owned social media platform has launched its live video. It seems that Instagram receives criticism from a different standpoint than Facebook when the hashtag surfaced “free the nipple.”
When photos or videos are uploaded to the platform of what some may consider inappropriate the content is immediately removed, often times without reporting. It is interesting to see how Instagram has avoided incidents of extreme violence when both social media outlets are run by the same people.
What do you think about Facebook Live and live streaming as a whole? Are social media platforms better without it or is there an argument to be made that the platforms are still figuring it all out? Let us know what you think in the comment section below!
You can read more on Facebook Live in Jarrod Bethel’s blog's Facebook Live vs. Periscope.