Facebook’s inability to control live streaming ‘not good enough’ says Guardian boss
The boss of The Guardian has lashed Facebook for failing to have tools in place that could have prevented the rapid spread of the live streamed video of the Christchurch terror attack.
Pemsel: Monetising terror videos – even accidentally – is abhorrent
Speaking at the Advertising Week Europe conference in London, David Pemsel, CEO of Guardian Media Group, said it was abhorrent that such material could be monetised through appearing on ad funded platform or sites.
Part of last Friday’s attack on two mosques was live streamed by the perpetrator via Facebook. Extracts from the opening stages, before he entered the mosque, were later rebroadcast by some Australian news outlets. The Australian Communications & Media Authority, which regulates Australia’s broadcasters but not Facebook or other digital players, has already launched an investigation into those editorial decisions.
Monetising terrorist videos is exactly what happened.
“It’s a shame and really disappointing that you need something of such horror to make people now start to talk about the role of these technology companies.” It is a very true quote.
I really yearn for the days when journalism had the funds and power to have influence and take the time to investigate stories. Newsrooms are so scantly resourced now that so many stories just aren’t being told.
We’re all for diversification but Google and FB have a mentality that they are the smartest people in the room and the publishers just ‘don’t get it’. I do think we will look back at this era as the time when the fourth estate was seriously diminished by unregulated tech companies allowing ‘trolls’ (and boy and I sick sick of that word) dominate social conversations.
If “the video was viewed about 4000 times in total before being removed from Facebook”, then how come “In the first 24 hours, we removed about 1.5 million videos of the attack globally. More than 1.2 million of those videos were blocked at upload.”
Doesnt that mean that:
* 300k were not blocked at upload but removed within 24 hours
* 1.2m were blocked at upload within 24 hours
… then how was the video only viewed 4,000 times before being removed from Facebook?
Does this refer just to the shooters live stream video?
Does the 4,000 number exclude subsequent views on Facebook that were ‘secondary’ copies of the original (or parts thereof) e.g. from the named alt-right site?
If so, is the 4,000 number less than what it seems to purport?