Facebook and YouTube can't stop a girl's suicide video from spreading
Katelyn Nicole Davis, a 12-year-old girl, took her own life last month.
Two weeks later, people are experiencing it again and again. Headlines from last week that drift into this week say that the girl "streamed her own suicide on Facebook" (Heavy.com); "live-streamed suicide on Facebook Live" (Inquisitr/Yahoo.com); "streams her own suicide on Facebook Live" (TheSun.com).
But it wasn't on Facebook Live. The more than 40-minute video of the girl hanging herself originated on an app called Live.me, which is a mobile app for live-streaming, popular among teens. The video remained up on Live.me and was later uploaded and circulated on Facebook and YouTube, as well as embedded across different websites.
While it's difficult to determine the origin of the confusion, it's evident that Facebook is a powerful distributor of video — especially for these live moments. Facebook has been making it easier to create and distribute video, most recently by adding automatic captioning and introducing live video to desktop.
But clearly the company is not monitoring effectively nor being explicitly clear about their guidelines. Even law enforcement that have been contacted about the video have expressed frustration at being unable to get the videos taken down.
On Thursday, Mashable identified a video of the suicide that was uploaded on Facebook four days prior. The video contained a graphic video warning, which Facebook attributes to videos that it believes meet its Community Guidelines but should be viewed at discretion.
Kyle MacDonald, New Zealand-based psychotherapist, had viewed a version of the video and reported it to Facebook. He received this response earlier this week: "We’ve reviewed the share you reported for showing someone injuring themselves and found that it doesn’t violate our Community Standards," he wrote in The Guardian.
However, Facebook told Mashable Thursday that such a video should have been removed from the website.
Facebook isn't alone in its struggle to prevent videos that violate its standards from being uploaded and sharing. Mashable found several videos that included clips of Davis's final moments. A YouTube spokesperson said the site prohibits content that show the moment of a death for the suicide of a minor.
As Mashable previously reported, Facebook videos must be taken down by a human moderator and are not automatically removed with technology.
Facebook's guidelines require a human to put such "graphic video" warnings before user-uploaded videos. This would mean the warning label that was attributed to the above video was added by a human. The video has since been removed.
Still, Facebook's system is not working. "We want it down as much as anyone for the family and it may be harmful to other kids. We contacted some of the sites. They asked if they had to take it down and by law they don’t. But it’s just the common decent thing to do in my opinion,” Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd told Fox News 5 in Atlanta, Ga.
Facebook declined to say if the company has been in contact with Dodd or other police officials. The company said, repeatedly, to Mashable that it did not host the original video.
The app that hosted the original stream, Live.me, has reached out to Facebook and YouTube to help remove the content. A Live.me spokesperson told Mashable Thursday in an emailed statement:
We were deeply saddened to learn of the tragic passing of the tragic passing of community member Katelyn Nicole Davis on 12/30. Out of respect to her family, friends, and to the entire Live.me community, her account and videos were removed as soon as we were alerted and have been archived to support law enforcement in their investigations.
We understand that users had begun circulating footage of the tragedy before our support team had been able to respond, and we are actively working to track down those videos and have them removed from Facebook and other video sharing sites.
The responsibility of managing and protecting our community is something we take very seriously here at Live.me. We are constantly improving our automated and human monitoring methods for detecting harassment and harm, including threats of self inflicted violence. This is an area where we will continue to improve. If anyone is aware of individuals threatening personal harm, we urge them to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline immediately at 1-800-273-8255.
Facebook declined to comment about the situation on the record.
To talk to someone about self-injury or if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. For international resources, this list is a good place to start.
Topics Facebook
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
