Facebook admitted in a statement that they “need to do better,” after a violent video of the Easter Sunday Cleveland shooting remained on the platform for hours without removal.
“As a result of this terrible series of events, we are reviewing our reporting flows to be sure people can report videos and other material that violates our standards as easily and quickly as possible,” said Facebook in their statement. “We disabled the suspect’s account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report about the murder video, and two hours after receiving a report of any kind… But we know we need to do better.”
“Keeping our global community safe is an important part of our mission,” they continued, adding “We are grateful to everyone who reported these videos and other offensive content to us, and to those who are helping us keep Facebook safe every day.”
Suspect Steve Stephens recorded himself approaching and then fatally shooting 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr., before he fled the scene and managed to evade police until Tuesday, when a standoff with police officers led to his suicide.
“Stephens posted a video of himself killing Robert Godwin Sr., a former foundry worker who had ten children, police said. In it, he said, ‘I snapped, I just snapped.’,” reported AP on Tuesday. “Stephens, 37, shared a recording on Sunday of himself announcing his plan to kill someone, then two minutes later posted another video of himself shooting and killing Godwin, Facebook said. A few minutes after that, he went live and confessed.”
Despite Facebook’s claims that they removed the video within 23 minutes of receiving the first report, a report was not filed until over an hour after the video was posted.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.