Following the shooting of reporter Alison Parker and videographer Adam Ward live on the air at a Virginia shopping centre early on Wednesday morning, the gunman gained notoriety by uploading his own footage of the attack. He had tested uploading videos and posted an old showreel of himself in a gun shop, posing with an automatic weapon.
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Your social media feed is under assault by moving pictures.
Twitter and Facebook both rolled out auto-play video features that automatically play video ads, Vines, and GIFs.
Twitter took down Williams’ account within eight minutes of his posting the video, CNNMoney confirmed.
While the Facebook account in question contained little more than the horrific video-captured in the above gallery the moment Facebook acted to suspend it-the Twitter account contained more confessional posts, some of which can be seen in the above gallery.
Twitter and Facebook nearly immediately suspended his accounts. A follow-up tweet said, “I filmed the shooting”.
“We decided to link to the video rather than embed it on our site as a way of giving our readers the option of viewing it – with a warning about its sensitive nature – rather than forcing a disturbing video on anyone who came to our site”, a Times deputy editor told Washington Post blogger Erik Wemple. Facebook said it removed the profile for violating community standards that “prohibit you from celebrating any crimes you’ve committed”.
According to Virginia State Police, the suspect is still alive after shooting himself, and crashing his auto on I-66 in Fauquier County.
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The videos were still available on YouTube, where a number of different users had posted them.
