Horror live on Facebook as a father films himself hanging his baby daughter
Four-minute video nightmare left online for 24 hours
A FATHER broadcast himself murdering his 11-month-old daughter live on Facebook.
The four minutes of footage showing the child’s unbearable final moments were online for 24 hours before being removed.
The social networking site admitted last week that it had ‘to do better’ to prevent such horror being uploaded after it took over two hours to delete footage of an American killing a stranger.
The murder of the baby girl took place in the Thai resort of Phuket. Using a smartphone, Wuttisan Wongtalay, 21, recorded himself putting a rope around his daughter’s neck and hanging her. He then killed himself.
Two video clips of the disturbing incident were accessible on the father’s Facebook profile for around 24 hours.
It is understood they were posted using the Facebook Live video service on Monday and finally removed yesterday. The first clip was watched 112,000 times and the second 258,000 times.
The footage was also uploaded on to YouTube, owned by Google, where it was watched 2,351 times. It was taken down within 15 minutes. It is understood the videos were removed after Thailand’s ministry of digital economy contacted Facebook. A Thai police spokesman said the incident could have been ‘influenced from abroad, most recently in Cleveland’ – the American city where the stranger killing took place.
A spokesman for Facebook said last night: ‘This is an appalling incident and our hearts go out to the family of the victim. There is absolutely no place for content of this kind on Facebook and it has been removed.’
A YouTube spokesman said: ‘YouTube has clear policies that outline what’s acceptable to post and we quickly remove videos that break our rules when they’re flagged.’
Local media reported that Wongtalay, suspected his wife Jiranuch Trirat, 21, of having an affair and had threatened to kill her in a jealous rage earlier that day. He is then said to have stormed out of the house with their baby, Natalie. The distraught mother saw the murder video 45 minutes after it was posted and told police.
MPs last night said there was no excuse for the footage to have been available for so long.
‘Here is yet another example where the lack of editorial oversight by Facebook means frankly revolting images are allowed to be shared and go viral,’ said Julian Knight, a Tory member of the Commons culture committee.
‘We have heard many fine words from Facebook but little in the way of action. The likes of Twitter and Facebook hide behind being a host rather than a publisher but it isn’t good enough – after all these are some of the biggest and most valuable companies in the world.’
Tory MP Nigel Huddleston, who sits on the same committee, said: ‘The footage must have been horrific.
‘While most people probably have the self-discipline and respect never to watch such content, Facebook should act much more quickly at removing this kind of material. If they cannot use technology to automatically take down such videos then they must dedicate far more money and resources to enable human beings to do so.
‘There is absolutely no excuse for Facebook allowing this content to be up for the length of time it was.’
In a separate case yesterday a Swedish court jailed two Afghan men, aged 21 and 18, and a Swedish 21-year-old for gang raping a woman and livestreaming the attack on Facebook.
The assault of a 15-year-old girl by six men was broadcast on Facebook Live last month – with none of the 40 viewers reporting it to police.
Officers learned of the attack on the girl, from Chicago, only when her mother went to a police station with images from the video.
The US firm says it is finding ways for its review team to react quicker to such content.
Somsak Khaosuwan, a senior Thai official, said Facebook co-operated ‘very well’ with ministry requests.
‘Another example of lack of oversight’