
Still, the video made it out into the wilds of the web, including torrents, which require no individual site to host it. Reddit also banned groups, including the r/watchpeopledie subreddit, after users shared a link to the shooter's live video. It also temporarily suspended the ability to sort or filter searches by upload date. YouTube's systems, which normally rely on a combination of human moderation and AI tools, also "automatically rejected" footage of the violence, a spokesperson said. The company also took down versions of the footage that had been edited and didn't contain graphic content, "out of respect for the people affected by this tragedy and the concerns of local authorities." , 1.2 million were blocked at the point of upload, the social network said.


In the first 24 hours after the attack, Facebook said it removed 1.5 million copies of the video. The video spread far and wide across the internet. Footage of the shooting popped up on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, pushing the content moderation at the companies into overdrive. That was enough time for some users to download and then re-upload the video. Facebook said it received its first user report about the video 12 minutes after the video ended, roughly a half hour after the attack started. Another 4,000 viewers saw the gruesome footage before the social network took it down and closed the alleged shooter's account.

If the attacks were meant to go viral, the gunman accomplished that goal, creating a game of whack-a-mole for Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Reddit.įacebook said fewer than 200 viewers saw the stream as the attack was happening. How did Facebook, YouTube and Reddit respond? The footage also looked like it could have come from Call of Duty, Battlefield or any other realistic war simulation game.
