MZ Facebook comment
This past week, the whole world had access to watching the murder of Robert Godwin, 74, on Facebook. The killer, Steve Stephens, 37, soon adopted the nickname of the “Facebook Killer”. As he got out of his car and randomly shot Godwin, an innocent elderly gentleman, Stephens was recording the whole thing on his cellphone. He then took this video and posted it on his Facebook for everyone to see.
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According to foxnews.com the video became a common search. “This week it was the top result when Facebook users searched for ‘RIP Robert Godwin’ and ‘Steve Stephens shooting’”, foxnews.com said. LibDem home affairs spokesman and ex-senior Met police chief Brian Paddick commented on this video and said, “This video shows total insensitivity for the tragic death of this innocent man. It must be unbearably traumatic for the victim’s family. Facebook should be doing everything they can to make sure it is taken down and not shared across its platforms. This is about dignity and respect and they cannot be allowed to continue with this hands-off approach.”
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Last Tuesday, Facebook had its biggest conference of the year in San Jose, California where Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, gave a presentation. He spoke about many things, but one of his first statements was about the “Facebook Killer” Steve Stephens. According to businessinsider.com, Zuckerberg said, “We have a lot more to do here. We’re reminded of this this week by the tragedy in Cleveland. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Robert Godwin Sr., and we have a lot more work and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening." Zuckerberg quickly touched on this tragedy and moved back to speaking about other elements of Facebook.
Social media has been a growing platform over the years with many different types of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. All of social media is used differently and it just depends on who the person is. In this case, Stephens used Facebook in a rather violent, hurtful way. Facebook has its holes in it just like all other platforms do. Zuckerberg is determined to make Facebook better and increase its awareness for videos like these. Who knows where social media or Facebook specifically will be in a few years, but we all are just hoping that these videos are better controlled in the future.