A frightening incident took place in Chicago over the past two days. An 15-time girl missing from Sunday was sexually sexually abused by many young men, and the attack was broadcast live on Facebook.
The video clip was taken down by Facebook following a Chicago police order. However, about 40 people had witnessed it, none of whom called the authorities to report it.
The girl found herself on Tuesday and returned to her mother, but the perpetrators remain inconceivable. This naturally raises several questions:
For starters, why none of the 40 live stream watchers noticed the police? Facebook does not seem to have any features to block such videos, but none of the viewers ever thought about mentioning it to the company. The company published the following statement:
"Crimes like this are horrific and we do not allow this kind of thing content on Facebook. We take our responsibility to keep people safe on Facebook and will remove videos that depict sexual abuse or glorify violence.”
But what about the exchange of information with law enforcement authorities on attackers who still escape arrest?
Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told Al Jazeera that in order to find out who uploaded the video, investigators would have to send a summons to Facebook and "prove a live stream link to the criminals." At present, as mentioned above, there are no suspects and no arrests have been made for this incident.
Next, what makes people want to broadcast their heinous crimes? Adrenaline; or the desire of a statement? According to Wall Street journal, Facebook live has been used to broadcast at least 50 acts of violence, including murder. Is a stronger reporting system on Facebook's part enough to prevent such acts?
Ultimately, we should recognize that livestreamed violence is a growing phenomenon that we must fight immediately.