Police in Thailand yesterday said they would discuss how to speed up taking down “inappropriate online content” after a man broadcast himself killing his 11-month-old daughter in a live video on Facebook.
Two videos, which were available for nearly 24 hours before they were taken down, show Wuttisan Wongtalay on Monday hanging his daughter from a building in Phuket before he turned off the camera and killed himself.
“In the future we will discuss inappropriate online content, whether on Facebook or YouTube or Instagram, and how we can speed up taking this content down,” deputy Thai police spokesman Kissana Phatanacharoen told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
It was not immediately clear how authorities plan to speed things up.
Police had asked the Thai Ministry of Digital Economy to contact Facebook about removing the videos.
The ministry on Tuesday contacted Facebook and the videos were taken down at about 5pm, nearly a day after they had been uploaded.
The videos, which drew nearly half a million views before they were taken down, sparked outrage among netizens, and prompted questions about how Facebook’s reporting system works and how violent content can be flagged faster.
The case is the latest in a string of violent crimes that have plagued Facebook despite making up a small percentage of videos. On Tuesday a Swedish court jailed three men for the rape of a woman that was broadcast live on Facebook.
Last week, Facebook said it was reviewing how it monitored violent footage and other objectionable material after a posting of the fatal shooting of a man in Cleveland, Ohio was visible for two hours before being taken down.
Some are asking what took Thai authorities so long to act.
Kissana blamed the delay partly on the time difference between the US, where Facebook is headquartered, and Thailand.
“We did the best we could, but there’s the time difference issue because Facebook is headquartered in San Francisco,” Kissana said, without elaborating.
He said Thai police have two ways of being alerted about disturbing content: monitoring by a dedicated technology crime suppression division or a tip-off from the public using police hotlines.
A cousin of the baby’s mother said the family was too traumatized to think about removing the video from Facebook.
“We didn’t think about removing the video because all we wanted to do at the time was find them [the father and baby] first,” Suksan Buachanit, 29, said.
The Thai digital ministry said it would review how it handles similar cases in the future.
“We will take this as a lesson and come up with a solution ... but this is not something we can do immediately,” ministry spokesman Somsak Khaosuwan said.
Police said the killing was the first in Thailand known to have been broadcast on Facebook.
They said the crime was driven by jealousy because Wuttisan was afraid his wife would leave him for another man.
The Thai Ministry of Public Health said it records on average one to two suicide videos a month that are posted to social media, including YouTube and Facebook.
Thailand has a technology crime suppression police division which handles inappropriate content and computer crimes that are insulting to the monarchy.
The country’s strict lese-majeste law makes it a crime to defame, insult or threaten the king, queen, heir to the throne or regent. Each offense is punishable with a jail term of up to 15 years.
Thailand has increased its use of the law since the royalist military seized power in 2014.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in