Facebook Live has streamed fatal shooting of police officers at Dallas rally, pushing the company in a delicate situation.
According to CNET, the shooting that left seven police officers wounded and five others dead Thursday night in downtown Dallas was live-streamed. Dallas resident Michael Kevin Bautista streamed the three-minute video on Facebook.
The live-stream of the shooting is the second violent broadcast on Facebook in just two days. The social media network's stated mission is to help people throughout the world to share and connect.
With more than a billion daily users, Facebook has become now one of the largest online communities in the world. However, what began as a way for people to organize get-togethers and post photos has since morphed into a catalyst for social unrest and political debate.
The new Facebook Live broadcast feature has become in the three months since launch a mirror of people's lives. The live video streaming feature is relaying video from users' phones of everything from the tragic to the inspirational.
Now Facebook is confronted with a delicate situation when it must weigh whether pulling such video content is in the company's best interests. The company must learn when to draw the line if a live video is too graphic.
Shortly before the Dallas attacks, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder and CEO, said on a blog post that the graphic images being shared on the social media network Live service were heartbreaking. He added that the violence "reminds us why is so important to come together and build a more open and connected world.
Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted quoting the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. He also made a statement in support of the fallen officers in Dallas, highlighting the fact that violence cannot gain justice.
The New York Times reports that Jonathan L. Zittrain, a law and computer science professor at Harvard University explains that at the moment there are already several companies in a position to offer a live-streaming service where individual broadcasts are easily to share and discover. He noted that this situation just pushes companies in certain positions they were not designed to deal with.
