Facebook to Tighten Content Policy After Horrific Cleveland Murder Uploaded on Social Media
The murder of Robert Godwin, a 74-year old man from Cleveland was filmed on Easter Sunday and uploaded on Facebook. The content went viral as it was reposted and viewed by millions. Netizens are outraged as the video was copied, reposted and made rounds after the original was taken down.
The attacker, Steve Stephens reportedly filmed himself shooting the victim in close range just as Robert Godwin was walking home after celebrating Easter with his family. The Guardian reports that the victim's grandson, Ryan Godwin has begged that his grandfather's video be stopped from sharing on social media platforms including Facebook.
Steve Stephens reportedly posted a series of videos with the first one of him threatening to kill someone. The second video he posted was that of the murder of Robert Godwin while the last video of him was a live stream of him confessing to the murder and threatening to kill more people. The murder suspect is still on the loose and the FBI has conducted a manhunt for him across the US.
In lieu with this, a Facebook representative issued a statement regarding the Cleveland murder video. Variety reports that Facebook VP of global operations, Justin Osofsky, says that the social media giant is tightening their content policy.
Facebook is reportedly securing and looking for more ways for people to report and take down sensitive content. The company explained that they have only received a report about the actual Cleveland murder video almost 2 hours after it was posted. The company's platform also deactivated Steve Stephen's Facebook account but not before the shooting video was copied and re-uploaded to several accounts.
Osofsky adds that Facebook is committing to do its best to make the social media platform safer for its users. This includes preventing offensive and sensitive videos from being reshared.
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