Opinion

Can Mark Zuckerberg rein in the Frankenstein monster of Facebook Live?

Following a string of horrific tragedies live-streamed for all world to see, Happy Marketer’s Prantik Mazumdar argues that Facebook Live needs to rediscover its original purpose before brands lose trust

When Facebook Live first arrived, it was hailed for its intention to democratise the broadcasting world.  Zuckerberg himself described the phenomenon as being like “having a TV camera in your pocket” on his own personal Facebook page post the day it launched on April 6 last year.

On a personal level, it was meant to give people the chance to stream memorable moments such as weddings, birthdays – any kind of celebration.

At the same time it gave Facebook a competitive advantage over its rivals YouTube and Twitter in the live streaming sports arena. Major sports events from Major League Baseball to the National Basketball League would have the chance to directly reach their target audience on their mobile devices.

Elsewhere, it was meant to be a platform for connection. Business and political leaders could directly connect with their stakeholders and constituents, while opening the gates for citizen journalists to have their own voice and chance to play an important role in broadcasting live events.

It was meant to do a lot of good.

However, like all things in hindsight, it now seems that little thought was given to the potential ramifications of this powerful tool being misused and abused. From the Minnesota and and Chicago shootings in the United States, to the Paris attacks, and more recently to the infant murder in Bangkok, the world has witnessed some horrific and obnoxious acts broadcasted live. These horrific acts make one wonder if Facebook has created its own version of a Frankenstein monster that it can’t control ?

The real-time nature of the content on a Live video creates immediacy and Facebook’s Newsfeed algorithm gives it priority and features it at the top of one’s feed and alerts users through a notification every time a friend goes Live.

Currently the Live feature does not censor or moderate the content and gives equal weightage to the video irrespective of whether it is broadcasting a birthday party or a murder or a ghastly act of terror. And akin to the depiction in the very first episode of Black Mirror, the popular British series, we humans have a voyeuristic tendency, fuelled by our innate curiosity to watch and share inappropriate, disturbing content with equal zest.

Is Facebook Live another Frankenstein monster?



This human behaviour ensures that terrorists, murderers and rapists have a large and active audience gallery to play to and achieve their objectives of spreading hate, terror and divisive feelings globally through their mobile devices. Now, just like the Fake News phenomenon, is Facebook to be blamed for creating this Frankenstein? Is the onus on them to moderate and censor? And what does this mean for brand marketers, the primary community that contributes to Facebook’s US$27 billion dollar revenue pool?

 

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

Marketers are extremely particular and sensitive about their brand’s safety in terms of ensuring that its messages appear on the right channels and are placed adjacent to appropriate content; now imagine the horror if your branded content appears as a mid-roll ad in a Facebook video that’s broadcasting a murder or a suicide? The association will tarnish the brand for a long time.

Or even your brand page’s social post appearing in the same fold as the obnoxious Live video could be detrimental, especially since people are likely to grab screenshots and disseminate them through their personal chats on Messenger and Whatsapp.

To be fair, Zuckerberg and his team have taken some remedial steps to acknowledge that while they may not be the sole cause of this issue, they definitely are part of the problem. The company is willing to work with third party organisations to tackle the challenge, lest the brand marketing community pulls back their ad spends just the way some did on the YouTube network in Europe recently.

Given that it’s just been a year since Facebook Live was launched, juxtaposed with the fact that the advertising community is rallying together around critical issues such as viewability, transparency and attribution, I believe it is a good time for brand marketers to collectively voice their concerns about brand safety in cohesion. Through industry associations, they must work together with Facebook to ensure that this innovative platform stays true to it’s original purpose and lives up to it’s potential.

Perhaps, it’s time for brand marketers to go Live and make themselves heard loud and clear.

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