Activity 0603: Trigger Warning/ Guilt by Association

Trigger Warning/Guilt by Association 

ACTIVITY 0603

Real time streaming on Facebook has resulted in publication of crimes in the following cases:

Serena Mckey was beaten to death by a group of classmates on fb live for four minutes. She was heard crying "I'm so sorry." They think it was drug related.

Steve Stephens streamed himself murdering Robert Godwin, a random stranger and grandfather of 75 who he happened to meet after stating he was going on a killing spree and he told the old man before he shot and killed him to say the name of his girlfriend, and then said that she is the reason I am going to do this. 

Wuttisan Wongtalay filmed himself killing his baby of 11 months and then himself on fb streaming live in order to get back at his wife, and she happened to see the incident while scrolling facebook elsewhere.

Abu Marwan stabbed and murdered his wife for apparently cheating him and then live streamed the aftermath of the crime. He was covered in blood and told people to share it so other women woud see what happens to women who cheat.

Andrej Secuta was beaten to death on live by two men,while thousands watched and it got 400 likes. 

(Source: https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/facebook-live-killing-155437/)

A group of men kidnapped and tortured a special needs man making drink from the toilet bowl and threatening him with a knife and telling him he was going to murder him

A 15 year old girl was gangraped on fb streaming live by six men while 40 watched.

In the case of the man who killed his 11 month daughter, two videos he made of it were watched 380,000 times and Facebook didn't remove it for 24 hours.

(Source: https://www.robertreeveslaw.com/blog/murders-facebook/)

My response to something like this is utter horror. And as far as what it says about our social media society, it says that the whole thing is gross. People are desensitized and get off on others suffering. It's like a huge leap that isn't so huge from the cruel words and trolling that goes on in comment sections to another level of disconnect from other people and total lack of regard for their feelings. That's in terms of the audience. As far as people commiting these acts on social media it also shows how social media is real life to people. They want to share their very last and shocking behavior with the online community because it's such a deeply ingrained normalized impulse.