Following the New Zealand terrorist attacks, Facebook has announced measures to protect Live from abuse – including the restriction of who can use the feature.
About a month ago, we reported that Facebook was considering restricting which users can go Live on its platform. Now, the company has announced just that. The decision follows the terrorist attacks in New Zealand, and the gunman’s use of Facebook Live to broadcast his killing to millions. As Facebook’s VP of Integrity, Guy Rosen, explains in a recent newsroom announcement, the company has “been reviewing what more [it] can do to limit [its] services from being used to cause harm or spread hate.”
So, starting this week, “people who have broken certain rules on Facebook,” such as its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy “will be restricted from using Facebook Live.”
Rosen explains that up until now if a user posted content that violated Facebook’s Community Standards — on Live or elsewhere — Facebook would take action by taking down their post. If they continued to post violative content, Facebook would block them from using its platform “for a certain period of time.” This, “also removed their ability to broadcast Live.”
In some cases, this would also lead to the user being banned from Facebook entirely. This could be due to “repeated low-level violations, or, in rare cases, because of a single egregious violation (for instance, using terror propaganda in a profile picture or sharing images of child exploitation).”
Now, Facebook is applying a ‘one strike’ policy to Live. As Rosen explains,
“From now on, anyone who violates our most serious policies will be restricted from using Live for set periods of time – for example 30 days – starting on their first offense. For instance, someone who shares a link to a statement from a terrorist group with no context will now be immediately blocked from using Live for a set period of time.”
The restrictions will also be extending to “other areas” soon, such as not allowing those offenders from running ads on the platform.
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