Facebook hiring 3,000 video monitors to prevent livestreamed murders

Social media site was criticized for not being quickly responsive enough, for example when a man was shot dead in Cleveland and a baby was killed in Thailand.

With the Thailand video, when Wuttisan Wongtalay killed his daughter Beta, was up for 24 hours before it was removed.

And CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is ‘working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner – whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down.’

Facebook already has 4,500 people working to identify content showing, for example, crimes. Videos and posts that glorify violence are against Facebook’s rules. In most cases, content is reviewed only if users complain.

A news reports discussing the posts are allowed, however, even if they contain some of the content, and posts that condemn violence are allowed. This makes for a tricky balancing act for the company.

Facebook does not want to act as a censor, as videos of violence, such as those documenting police brutality or the horrors of war, can serve an important purpose.

It would be impossible to prevent anything bad from happening on live video, as it happens in real time.

There are positive uses, such as recording a toddler’s first steps, live news events and charity fundraisers.

Zuckerberg said Facebook workers review ‘millions of reports’ every week. In addition to removing videos of crime or getting help for someone who might hurt themselves, he said the reviewers will ‘also help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation.’