An Alabama man livestreamed his suicide on Facebook Live following a relationship breakup this week.
“According to information released Wednesday by the BCSO, a woman contacted the Sheriff’s Office with concerns about her boyfriend, 49-year-old James M. Jeffrey of Robertsdale. The couple were in the middle of a breakup and he had stopped responding, she said,” reported AL.com on Wednesday. “While deputies were on the way to his residence on Ponderosa Farm Road at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, ‘the Sheriff’s Office Communications Division received reports that Jeffrey committed suicide and filmed the event on Facebook Live.’”
The report indicates that Jeffrey “shot himself in the head with a rifle,” live on the platform, before police arrived.
The suicide is just the latest incident of a livestreamed death on the platform, which has become increasingly more common.
This week, a Thai man also livestreamed himself hanging his 11-month-old child on Facebook Live, before committing suicide.
After reportedly being alerted to the livestream by friends of the man, police “rushed to an abandoned hotel near the international airport on Monday afternoon,” only to find both people hanged.
“They had already died when I arrived there,” said Lieutenant Jullaus Suvannin, who also claimed that “a smartphone was found propped up against a wall.”
In January, four people were arrested in Chicago after they filmed themselves torturing and beating a tied up disabled boy, who was repeatedly forced to say, “f*ck Trump,” and, “f*ck white people,” while on Easter Sunday, Facebook user Steve Stephens filmed himself shooting and killing 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr. before he evaded police for days– eventually committing suicide in a standoff.
Following the revelation that the video of the murder was on Facebook for hours before removal, the company admitted in a statement that they “need to do better.”
“As a result of this terrible series of events, we are reviewing our reporting flows to be sure people can report videos and other material that violates our standards as easily and quickly as possible,” said Facebook in their statement. “We disabled the suspect’s account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report about the murder video, and two hours after receiving a report of any kind… But we know we need to do better.”
“Keeping our global community safe is an important part of our mission,” they continued, adding “We are grateful to everyone who reported these videos and other offensive content to us, and to those who are helping us keep Facebook safe every day.”
(via: Breitbart)
