Following the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, Facebook is “exploring restrictions” for who can broadcast live on the platform.
The social network’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, outlined in a recent blog post several steps the company had taken and planned to take to combat the use of its platform in sharing horrific videos like the one from this attack.
First and foremost, Sandberg wrote that Facebook would explore restrictions on who could use its live broadcasting features. Limits would be based on factors like prior Community Standards violations.
Additionally, Sandberg wrote that the company was investing in research to build better technology to help identify edited reposts of videos.
In the case of the Christchurch video, Sandberg says people spread it by re-sharing it and editing it to make it difficult for Facebook systems to block it.
“We have identified more than 900 different videos showing portions of those horrifying 17 minutes,” Sandberg wrote.
Along with exploring options to restrict live broadcasts, Sandberg wrote that Facebook would take stronger steps to remove hate from its platforms, such as using existing artificial intelligence tools to identify and remove a range of hate groups in Australia and New Zealand.
Sandberg also noted that earlier this week, Facebook banned content that supports white nationalism and separatism.
However, many still question if Facebook and other social media platforms are doing enough to combat extremist content like this. Some countries, including Canada, are considering legislation to force social media companies to block extremist content.
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