Facebook Announces Changes To Graphic Video Policy

In this day and age, technology and how it’s used evolves just as much as species have in millions of years. The change often comes with big news, and with social media often replacing the front page of people’s newspapers, big events mean big coverage and it would seem Facebook is reacting to this in response to recent events.

Any site that allows video content has to be careful, while people have included everything from cute cats to music videos and personal projects they can also be misused to include adult or sometimes graphic content to people of all ages. Facebook is no exception, having to track people and content to ensure that it doesn’t breach their guidelines.

The most recent change to their policy may do away with that approach. Facebook will start allowing the sharing of “graphic or violent videos or images” under certain circumstances. The following statement was released by Facebook:

Live video allows us to see what’s happening in the world as it happens…The rules…are the same for all the rest of our content. A reviewer can interrupt a live stream if there is a violation of our Community Standards.
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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. For instance, if a person witnessed a shooting, and used Facebook Live to raise awareness or find the shooter, we would allow it. However, if someone shared the same video to mock the victim or celebrate the shooting, we would remove the video.

The changes will see Facebook supporting civilian journalists such as those who caught the tragic events that have happened and are currently happening in Baton Rogue and Minnesota. With large companies supporting and helping spread news around the world we can only hope that they are able to help bring the light the news and truths that may have hidden before.