Watch CBS News

Facebook To Hire 3,000 To Review Videos Of Crime And Suicide

NEW YORK (WJZ/AP) — Facebook says it will hire another 3,000 people to review videos and posts of crime and other questionable content following murders shown live on its site.

That's on top of the 4,500 people Facebook already has for such reviews.

The announcement comes from CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post Wednesday.

In recent cases, violent videos were posted online for millions to see and that pushed Zuckerberg to act.

Facebook has been criticized recently for not doing enough to prevent videos — such as a murder in Cleveland and a killing of a baby in Thailand — from spreading on its service.

The murder of a 74-year-old man in Cleveland was streamed live on Facebook. There was the physical abuse and verbal taunts of a disabled man in Chicago.

In Maryland, Baltimore County police charged a mother for slapping her children on a video posted to the site.

Videos and posts that glorify violence are against Facebook's rules. But in most cases they're only reviewed and possibly removed if users report them.

News reports and posts that condemn violence are allowed. This makes for a tricky balancing act for the company.

Zuckerburg personally announced Facebook will hire 3,000 people to monitor videos:

"If we're going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly. We're working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner -- whether that's responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down."

Facebook had humble beginnings in a college dorm, by 2008, it was on iPhones, then in 2016, came the biggest advancement yet. Facebook gave its one-billion plus users the ability to live stream whatever was going on in their lives and that was a game changer.

"This is unprecedented to have a communications platform that not only has two billion potential viewers, but two billion people can create content and distribute it," said professor Elliot King of Loyola University.

King said the burden will always be on Facebook to stay a step ahead.

"I think there is going to be a lot of complaints because they are going to exercise judgement, but I think that that's fine. That's what speech is all about."

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook

(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.