Gang rape. Suicides. Shooting deaths. The dark side of social media

A teenage boy shot and killed himself. A group of boys beat a disabled man. A 15-year-old girl was gang-raped.

While each horror occurred, the world watched — and many did nothing.

This is the dark side of Facebook Live — the popular social networking platform that was meant for the live broadcasting of events like baby steps, Little League games, a business debut and graduations.

Unfortunately, it's also a place where people die.

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In the fast-paced world of cyberspace technology, staying ahead of the bad guys, reckless youths and emotionally unstable people has proven to be a nearly impossible feat for Internet giants like Facebook. The Live feature is especially hard to control: By the time the company spots a violent feed, authorities note, the damage has been done.

Over the last two years, according to an analysis by the Free Press and BuzzFeed, at least 50 violent acts, two a month, have occurred on Facebook and Instagram live and Twitter's Periscope — the latest one here in Detroit.

On April 2, an 18-year-old Detroit man was shot and killed while live on Instagram video, where the world saw his friend pull the trigger on a rifle while apparently playing around.

Twenty-four hours earlier in Houston, a 26-year-old man was shot in the head on Easter Sunday as his friends messed around with a gun in a car during a Facebook Live video.

In February, a North Carolina man was shot and killed while he was live-streaming himself walking down a street on Facebook.

The videos could prove helpful in court, as was evidenced in the recent conviction of Anthony Gelia, 20, of Jackson, who was convicted of murder in March for killing a woman while breaking into a home — all while streaming the attack on Facebook Live. The video of the killing was played for the jurors.

For the social media giant, which is already under fire for accusations of mishandling users' private data and not preventing Russians from influencing America's presidential election, these tragedies are a reminder that it doesn't have a grip on this live-streaming animal.

"It's not going to stop," FBI special agent Michael Glennon said of the growing popularity of Facebook Live and its ill side effects. "The live feature itself — I know there's an effort and groups trying to develop programs that can gleam (live videos) on a real-time basis."

But the tougher part is trying to control people "or get them to be morally apt" before they go live, noted Glennon, who investigates human trafficking and child exploitation crimes across metro Detroit, often with the help of social networking sites. He said that Facebook and other service providers are "doing their best" to police unlawful behavior on live feeds. But with 2-billion plus users, the criminal element is tough to avoid.

"It's what we're dealing with," Glennon said. "It's not a world that's even recognizable anymore."

'It seems so surreal'

It was April 2, almost midnight, when two longtime friends sat in a living room on Detroit's west side hanging out. The two 18-year-olds went on Instagram Live and started taping themselves showing off money and a rifle.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Dylan Hemphill's friend accidentally put his finger on the trigger and fired, fatally striking Dylan in the back of the head, police said. The killing was aired live on Instagram.

"It seems so surreal. ... I'm shocked, very shocked," Dylan Hemphill's mom, Shantel Hemphill, told WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) in Detroit. "They're close friends. They're like brothers. I mean, I treated (him) like he was a son of mine."

According to police and emergency responders, the shooter called 911 to tell dispatchers what happened, but his friend died at the house.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig described the fatal shooting as a tragedy and said that, for now, it appears to have been an accident.

“It shouldn’t happen,” Craig said of teenagers playing with guns. “I would hope that someone didn’t use that platform as a means to depict that level of violence.”

Maria Miller, a spokesperson for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, said that police presented her office with a warrant for the shooter. But the prosecutor's office sent the request back to police seeking more information. The case remains under investigation. The name of the shooter has not been released.

Hemphill's memorial service is Saturday.

"We are saddened by the incident in Detroit," an Instagram spokesperson said in a statement to the Free Press. "We urge people to use our reporting tools if they see any content or behavior that puts anyone's safety at risk. We want to interrupt these streams as quickly as possible when they're reported to us and they violate our Community guidelines."

The statement continued: "We will also notify law enforcement if we see a threat that requires an immediate response. We suggest people contact emergency services if they become aware of a situation where the authorities can help."

Criminologist Matthew Larson, an associate professor of criminology at Wayne State University, said given the millions of live-streams every day, "these acts of violence are especially rare and no doubt outliers."

"What we do know, however, is that one element in particular is strongly related to this behavior: affirmation," Larson said. "We live in an era where young men and women are willing to risk their lives by consuming Tide Pods in the name of likes, comments, and/or friend requests. That people are willing to engage in such short-sighted behavior shows the power behind the capital that is the 'e-popularity' offered by social media."

Add to the mix the still-developing adolescent brain, he said, "And there you have it. Young people doing really, really stupid things."

Facebook's response

Last May, Facebook announced that it would amp up its live monitoring efforts following a series of violent and graphic events that were broadcast live.

In January 2017, four people in Chicago were arrested on charges of torturing an 18-year-old mentally disabled man on Facebook Live while yelling racial slurs.

Two months later, also in Chicago, a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped on Facebook Live by five or six men or boys.

In March 2017, a 13-year-old Georgia boy accidentally shot and killed himself while his friends watched on Instagram live.

Then in May 2017, a teenage Georgia girl live-streamed her own suicide attempt on Facebook, but the company kept the video up long enough for authorities to find and save her.

That incident triggered a response the very next day by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who pledged to make the Live feature safer, stating: “Over the last few weeks, we've seen people hurting themselves and others on Facebook — either live or in video posted later. It's heartbreaking, and I've been reflecting on how we can do better for our community.”

So Zuckerberg came up with a plan: he pledged to add 3,000 Facebook employees to help monitor crimes and hate speech on Facebook, adding to the 4,500 workers who already do that job. The goal is to have 20,000 people working on security and content monitoring by the end of 2018.

But then more horror stories followed.

In July 2017, a drunk, 18-year-old California woman live-streamed a car crash that killed her 14-year-old sister as the girl was thrown from the vehicle. She also filmed the aftermath on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

In October, a Turkish father upset about his daughter's engagement live-streamed his suicide on Facebook.

Facebook maintains that it does its best to police harmful behavior, giving its moderators the discretion to take down videos that celebrate violence, but keep the ones up that condemn or raise awareness of it. For social justice groups, Facebook Live has turned into a powerful tool to raise awareness to — for example — police brutality.

As is evident in the Black Lives Matter movement, victims of police shootings nationwide have used Facebook video footage to support their claims of police brutality. Perhaps the most notable such footage involved the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Minnesota. His girlfriend broadcast the aftermath of the shooting using Facebook Live. It was viewed on Facebook more than 4 million times within 24 hours of the shooting. Facebook briefly took the video down but put it back up with a warning.

"One of the most sensitive situations involves people sharing violent or graphic images of events taking place in the real world. In those situations, context and degree are everything," Facebook states. "In many instances when people share this type of content, they are condemning it or raising awareness about it. ... In those cases, we allow it."

Facebook also has suicide prevention tools that enable users to help suicidal friends. For example, users can flag posts in which someone is talking about hurting themselves, or sounds suicidal. Those posts are then reviewed by a team of Facebook monitors who can intervene and help the troubled individual, and send in law enforcement if harm looks imminent.

"Live video on Facebook and Instagram is still a new and growing format. We will continue to make improvements to this experience wherever we can," Facebook states. "We are committed to keeping the platform safe."

Lawsuits

Though many bad things happen on social networking sites — suicides, crimes, hate speech — suing the online companies over hurtful speech or even criminal conduct that occurs on the platform is next to impossible, according to Internet law experts.

That's largely because of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a federal law that grants broad immunity to social networking websites that allow users to freely express opinions and views.

In Detroit, a federal judge in March dismissed a lawsuit against Facebook, Google and Twitter by families of three victims killed in the 2016 Orlando nightclub massacre that killed 49 total. The families claimed that the gunman was radicalized by propaganda found on social media.

But U.S. District Judge David Lawson concluded that the families' claim had no legal merit.

"Facebook pretty much can't be held liable, ever. That's not actually a bad or crazy principle here. Facebook isn't the bad guy. We have genuine bad guys, but they're not Facebook," said Jonathan Weinberg, an Internet law professor at Wayne State University whose focus is on how laws impact technology.

For example, Weinberg said, if someone shoots and kills someone on Facebook Live —they're the criminal — not the company that's allowing it to be streamed through their platform. Typically, he said, Facebook has been responsive at taking down offensive or harmful material.

For example, he said, despite the broad immunity granted to Facebook, the company doesn't let child pornography be posted on its site because it's illegal. That's something it could be sued for, he said, adding Facebook is generally good at taking down offensive and illegal material when notified.

Moreover, he said, Facebook Live provides evidence to law enforcement that helps catch criminals — a point that many in law enforcement concur with.

"Obviously, anytime anyone does anything (live) they leave a footprint behind. It makes it easier to locate them," said FBI agent Glennon, noting Facebook Live footage has helped track down victims of human traffickers.

"Usually, the live feeds gives us location data that helps us track down children," Glennon said.

Meanwhile, grieving families are still trying to hold Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites liable for the acts that occur on their platforms.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas