Facebook and Twitter suspended the accounts of the shooter suspected in Wednesday’s deaths of two Virginia television journalists.
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A user by the name of Bryce Williams filmed himself shooting reporter Allison Parker and photographer Adam Ward in Moneta, Virginia.
He posted two videos on Twitter and one video on Facebook.
The video on Twitter showed someone walking up to Parker and Ward and pointing a gun at them. Another video showed the gun firing. A follow-up tweet said, “I filmed the shooting.”
Both Twitter and Facebook suspended the user’s profile pages within minutes. But not before the videos autoplayed on the social media sites for anyone who viewed his accounts.
The gunman’s own 56-second video showed him deliberately waiting until the journalists were on air before raising a handgun and firing at point-blank range, ensuring that it would be seen, live or recorded, by thousands. She noted that it becomes problematic in situations such as this one, when viewers get absolutely no warning that they’re about to see potentially distressful content, whereas television stations have the option of giving viewers caution beforehand.
Parker and Ward were interviewing Vicki Gardner, Executive Director at Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, when they were attacked. On the Twitter app for iOS, tap the Me tab in the lower-right corner 2.
The autoplaying video footage was posted immediately after the murder of the two media crew.
But some experts say social media businesses are ill-equipped to make these judgment calls.
“If another user notices that you have not marked your media appropriately, that user may flag your image or video for review”.
But autoplay videos, even when showing content that isn’t offensive, consume user’s mobile data, can slow down their smartphones and consume battery life unnecessarily – the biggest pain point of the modern smartphone user.
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