Over a year ago, Facebook Live launched on the longstanding social media platform to fanfare. But what was deemed to be a positive outlet for users to “create, share and discover live videos” quickly took a dark turn after posts of people inflicting fatal harm on others or taking their own lives began to surface.
To combat this wave of despair, the Associated Press reports that Facebook will hire 3,000 people to review seemingly problematic posts.
“If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly,” Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement published Wednesday (May 3). “We’re working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner — whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down.”
This new intake of employees will be added to the 4,500 workers at Facebook today, Zuckerberg notes. “These reviewers will also help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation,” he said. “And we’ll keep working with local community groups and law enforcement who are in the best position to help someone if they need it — either because they’re about to harm themselves, or because they’re in danger from someone else.”
This news follows the broadcast of Robert Godwin Sr.’s death at the hands of a Cleveland, Ohio man named Steve Stephens, and the murder-suicide of a Thai man and his infant daughter in late April.