The Rev. Jesse Jackson and officials
in the Chicago area are calling on Facebook to drop its Live function for 30
days, in the wake of the murder of Cleveland grandfather Robert Godwin, whose
shooting was broadcast on the social network.
Cook County Commissioner Richard
Boykin, Jackson and Father Michael Pfleger, a Chicago activist, are calling for
the moratorium, effective as soon as possible, in order to give Facebook a chance
to create a mechanism that would allow for instant removal of disturbing and
offensive content.
All three stood in front of
Facebook's Chicago offices on Friday to seek a meeting on the issue. Godwin
murder suspect Steve Stephens had announced on Facebook that he was going to
kill someone, then posted video of him shooting Godwin, 74, on the street. The
video of the Easter Sunday murder was reported but it took almost two hours for
those reports to reach Facebook staff, who then disabled Stephens' account.
Stephens killed himself in Erie, Pa., on April 18 as police closed in on him.
The moratorium would serve as
"a time out" to help Facebook figure out how to prevent people from
using it "as a platform to release their anger, their fears and their foolishness,"
Jackson told USA TODAY.
"The moratorium is ... an
opportunity for tech companies, elected officials, law enforcement, community
based organizations and civil rights advocates and others," Jackson said.
Boykin told ABC7 in Chicago that the
group wants to compel Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to create a
mechanism that would help remove disturbing content more quickly.
"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 told ABC7.
Facebook could not be reached late
Friday.
Contributing: Jessica Guynn
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