An 11 month old girl was murdered by her father in Thailand. The crime is heinous on its own, but unfortunately the cowardly father who hung his daughter, before committing suicide himself, recorded the horrific deed and placed it on Facebook.
After allegedly attacking his wife, 20 year old Wuttisan Wongtalay, left the marital home and took their daughter to a unfinished hotel in Phuket. There he recorded hanging the child and uploaded the video to Facebook. The video was shared and seen by hundreds of thousands before eventually being removed nearly 24 hours later. Wongtalay hung himself as well, but did not record his own death.
This murder comes only a week after Steve Stephens randomly, but purposely killed 74 year old Robert Godwin, with the seeming purpose of recording the deed and posting it on Facebook.
Wongtalay’s wife, 21 year old Jiranuch Trirat, apparently witnessed seeing the video. In her present grief, she does not appear to blame Facebook or the many viewers or those who shared the video. She blames Wongtalay for committing the act alone.
Murders and murder-suicides have existed long before Facebook and other streaming services opend up the public’s ability to potentially share info with the world. However, as these incidents are sure to inevitably increase, the discussions will as well as to whether Facebook and these other streaming services either bear some type of responsibility or moral obligation for their platforms being used for such reprehensible purposes.
I do not know what the answer is or should be. Clearly Facebook is not promoting its platform to be used for wrong deeds, but it is also aware that people are using the platform to highlight wrong. I do not know that we as a society need platforms to share our every thoughts and actions live, but the technology exists and it can never be placed back in the proverbial box. The only solution would be to censor and approve everyone’s content before it is allowed to be shown, and I am not sure that is a feasible solution.
Mechanisms are in place for any offensive materials to be taken down immediately, once reported. However, call it morbid curiosity, but once the information or videos are on the Internet, they will be shared and even if removed from the likes of Facebook, the content will invariably always be available somewhere. Unfortunately, I believe the capacity to view real life human tragedies in or near real time is forever a part of our lives moving forward. People committing bad deeds and having the ability to share, for whatever reasons, is something we must adjust to as a society. My hope is that this never becomes our new normal by totally desensitizing us to human suffering and tragedy. Technological innovators need to always keep this in mind when offering all of the public full platforms and unfettered access to the world.
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