Six months after the Christchurch gunman streamed his terror attack on Facebook Live, the tech giant has teamed up with the Metropolitan Police service to prevent future attacks from being broadcast live online.
From October this year, the Met will provide Facebook with video footage of training by its Firearms command, from the perspective of the officers.
The footage will be captured on body cameras, provided by Facebook, attached to firearms officers as they carry out their regular training.
The tech firm will use the footage to train its artificial intelligence systems to be able to detect and automatically remove live-streamed firearms attacks.
“With this initiative, we aim to improve our detection of real-world, first-person footage of violent events and avoid incorrectly detecting other types of footage such as fictional content from movies or video games,” the company said in a post.
It is hoped this initiative will help Facebook notify law enforcement of an attack early on and prevent the streaming of firearm and terror attacks on the platform.
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The footage will also be given to the Home Office so that it can share it with other tech companies to develop similar software and prevent attacks being broadcast on other platforms.
Assistant commissioner for specialist operations Neil Basu said: “The technology Facebook is seeking to create could help identify firearms attacks in their early stages and potentially assist police across the world in their response to such incidents.
“Technology that automatically stops live streaming of attacks once identified, would also significantly help prevent the glorification of such acts and the promotion of the toxic ideologies that drive them. We welcome such efforts to prevent terrorism and its glorification and are happy to help develop this technology.”
Stephanie McCourt, Facebook’s Law Enforcement Outreach Lead (UK) said: “This partnership with the Met Police will help train our AI systems with the volume of data needed to identify these incidents. And we will remain committed to improving our detection abilities and keeping harmful content off Facebook.”
Facebook was met with a global backlash over the slow speed in which it responded to the live stream of the Christchurch mosque shooting, in which 51 people died, and for its failure to prevent copies of videos from being shared on its platform.
New Zealand’s privacy commissioner said the firm’s silence was “an insult to our grief”.






