Open letter to Facebook asks for 'anti-censorship' policy after Korryn Gaines death

An open letter has been sent to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg on behalf of a collection of activists calling for a new "anti-censorship" policy from the social media platform.

The letter comes in the wake of the death of Korryn Gaines, who was killed by police in early August after a five-hour standoff with officers of the Baltimore County Police Department.

During the stand-off, Gaines, who was barricaded inside her apartment with her five-year-old son and wielding a shotgun, streamed the incident using Facebook Live and posted videos to her Instagram account.

Toward the end of the standoff, police officials requested that Facebook shut down the stream and suspend her social media accounts (Facebook owns Instagram). They followed guidelines from Facebook's "information for law enforcement authorities" page and the company complied.

That page says that "in responding to a matter involving imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person and requiring disclosure of information without delay, a law enforcement official may submit a request through the Law Enforcement Online Request System at facebook.com/records."

Gaines' accounts were reinstated after the stand-off was over. One of the videos Gaines posted on her Instagram account of a SWAT team member in her house was removed, but was captured and shared on Twitter.

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Police Chief Jim Johnson said at the time that the department made the emergency request to have Gaines' social media accounts suspended once they realized the videos were online. People who saw the postings were encouraging her to not comply with the police, he said.

Johnson said that county police based their request on the fact that there was a barricade involving someone with a gun, and that a child was present.

Gaines' son was also shot in the incident though his injuries were not life-threatening.

The shut down of Gaines' accounts has prompted the letter from dozens of activist groups, including the Center for Media Justice, MoveOn.Org, and The Peoples Press Project.

In it, the groups ask the platform "to stop this dangerous precedent of censoring users at the request of the police and clarify your policy on censoring video and other content on request of the police."

The writers also acknowledged Zuckerberg's previous support for the Black Lives Matter movement, adding, "we hope that you will ensure that Facebook implements an anti-censorship policy that honors and respects black lives."

A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed to Mashable that the company has received the letter and is currently reviewing it. They added that the company doesn't discuss specific cases with regards to law enforcement.

According to a Facebook report detailing government requests, the company received roughly 855 requests for emergency disclosures of information to government agencies due to the threat of harm or violence between July and December 2015. About 73 percent of those requests were granted.

Gaines had filmed previous interactions with police, including an incident that led to charges. When she failed to show up to court to face these charges, a bench warrant was issued for her arrest which led to the stand-off.

The Guardian reports Gaines was the ninth black woman killed by police in 2016.