Mark Zuckerberg Weighs In On Cleveland Facebook Murderer

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out about the Cleveland killer who took to Facebook Live [...]

By Hunter Miller

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out about the Cleveland killer who took to Facebook Live to broadcast a murder on the Internet. The 32-year-old spoke out at the F8 developer conference on Tuesday in San Jose, California.

Zuckerberg addressed the fact that the company has work to do as far as preventing violent videos from streaming on the social media network.

"We have a lot more to do here," Zuckerberg said. "We are reminded of this week by the tragedy in Cleveland."

He continued by offering his condolences to the victim of the Cleveland shooting, Robert Godwin.

"We will keep doing all of what we can to keep tragedies like this from happening."

In case you missed it, a 37-year-old man named Steve Stephens in Cleveland filmed himself on Facebook Live as he murdered a 74-year-old man named Robert Godwin in broad daylight. A nationwide search for Steve Stephens was initiated after the disturbing video began circulating on the Internet.

Steve Stephens was found dead on Tuesday morning. After a brief pursuit by the cops, Stephens committed suicide in Erie, Pennsylvania, about 100 miles from where the Facebook Live crime took place.

Facebook released a statement on Sunday regarding the incident which read: "This is a horrific crime and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook. We work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety."

According to the company, Facebook has a video review team on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, popular social media network received heavy backlash over the fact that it took Facebook "more than an hour and 45 minutes after it was posted" to remove Steve Stephens' video.

"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," the company said.

Given that this is one of multiple, horrific crimes that have been broadcast on Facebook Live, the company is faced with several courses of action, according to Wired editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson.

"What I think will happen now is Facebook will have to, A) look at their algorithms to try to figure out whether this can be stopped, and B) think about the culture; there is a real culture of violence that has perpetrated itself inside of video sharing and social media platforms, and can that be changed?"

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[H/T Variety, CBS News]

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