These incidents come as Facebook faces increasing criticism for allowing violent incidents to be streamed online using its video platform. The most recent and well-known case occurred in January when four people kidnapped and beat a mentally-disabled man in Chicago on Facebook live while shouting, "F**k Donald Trump! F**k white people!"
The four attackers recently pled not guilty to hate crime and kidnapping charges.
In March 2016, a Facebook live stream captured a 30-year-old Chicago man left in critical condition after being shot, and there were two incidents in June 2016, in which Antonio Perkins, another Chicago man, recorded his own murder, and a Daesh militant killed a French police officer and his wife on video while terrifying their young child.
During a July video stream recorded in Norfolk, Virginia, three men in their late 20s accidentally filmed themselves getting shot, one landing in critical condition as a result, and, in the same month, Minnesota woman Diamond Reynolds filmed her fiance being shot and killed by police on Facebook Live after being shot herself, sparking a rash of protests nationwide.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg posted condolences following the Castile shooting, saying, "The images we've seen this week are graphic and heartbreaking, and they shine a light on the fear that millions of members of our community live with every day. While I hope we never have to see another video like Diamond's, it reminds us why coming together to build a more open and connected world is so important — and how far we still have to go."
Some feel that these sentiments are too little too late, and the platform has been accused of not properly policing its online video-streaming service.
In the aftermath, Facebook clarified its content regulations in a statement entitled, "Community Standards and Facebook Live," acknowledging that the social media giant "understand[s] the unique challenges of live video. We know it’s important to have a responsible approach. That’s why we make it easy for people to report live videos to us as they’re happening. We have a team on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, dedicated to responding to these reports immediately."
When it comes to violence and criminal activity, the statement said that "context and degree are everything."
