Rev. Jesse Jackson is calling for a 30 day shut down of Facebook’s live streaming feature to give the company a chance to figure out a way to to remove disturbing video instantly from the site. The request comes in the wake of 74-year-old Robert Goodwin Snr’s death at the hands of Steve Stephens who uploaded the shooting onto Facebook Live.
“The moratorium is … an opportunity for tech companies, elected officials, law enforcement, community based organizations and civil rights advocates and others,” Jackson said.
This is me and my dad on Father’s Day 2015. #RobertGodwinSr RIP. pic.twitter.com/B2X0suE4AR
— MinisteringLove (@Repairerofthebr) April 17, 2017
On Friday (April 21) Jackson along with Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin and Chicago activist Father Michael Pfleger all stood in front of Facebook’s Chicago offices making the request known in hopes to seek a meeting. The trio are asking for an immediate shut down of the feature also because Stephens used the tool to announce he killed several other people and would kill more.
Boykin told Chicago’s ABC7 the temporary shut down isn’t a punishment but rather a chance for the social media giant to quickly disarm those using the tool to promote disturbing images. While the Easter Sunday video of Stephens killing Goodwin–a father of 10 and grandfather of 14–was eventually removed, it took nearly two hours for Stephens’ account to be disabled.
“We have asked him to put an emergency button, a 911-type button to get videos to the front of the line to make sure they don’t stay up for several hours,” Boykin said.