Facebook, YouTube blindsided by mosque shooter's live video

The speed at which a video of the New Zealand mosque shooting spread across social media platforms has demonstrated yet again that tech companies such as Facebook are still struggling to control content, especially from popular services that offer live streaming of events.

While platforms including Twitter and YouTube said they moved fast to scrub any content related to the incident from their sites, people reported it was still widely available hours after being first uploaded to the alleged shooter’s Facebook account. The first-person view of the killings in Christchurch was easily accessible during and after the attack — as was the suspect’s hatefilled manifesto. Footage was still up on Google’s YouTube almost 12 hours later.

Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged the difficulty of policing content from the 2.7 billion users that power Facebook’s wildly profitable advertising engine. The company’s business model depends on showing people posts they’re most apt to have an emotional reaction to, which often has the side effect of amplifying fake news and extremism.

Indeed, the livestream of the murders highlights how technology helped the alleged shooter connect with like-minded people online. Chat sites have acted as sounding boards for antiimmigrant ideas. The alleged shooter is said to have posted on Twitter and controversial message boards such as 8chan about his anti-immigrant ideas, including publishing a 74-page manifesto. Even after the major tech companies acted to take down the video, commenters continued to praise the murders online.