According to a grim tabloid report from Sweden, three men on Monday recorded and broadcast an alleged gang rape using Facebook Live — the social network’s live video streaming service.
The incident, which took place in Sweden’s fourth largest city Uppsala, is currently undergoing a “preliminary investigation”, according to police officials. Police were alerted by a concerned member of the closed Facebook group in which the video was being broadcast.
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According to a member of the group, around 200 people were watching the broadcast simultaneously. Reports also suggest that there might be two videos currently circulating on Facebook.
Police, in a press conference, suggested that they do have snippets of the incident, but are lacking “the segment showing the actual assault.”
Witness reports suggest that the victim was being forced to “deny that she had been raped”.
A gang rape in Uppsala, Sweden was reportedly broadcast live to over 200 people on Facebook
“He was putting the words in her mouth. He was extremely threatening and laughed throughout the film,” one respondent told a Swedish publication.
Facebook Live’s many controversies
As for Facebook, the social network is no stranger to broadcasting controversial video on its new Live service.
Late last year, 12-year-old Katelyn Nicole Davis broadcast her suicide to Facebook Live, with the California company only removing the video two weeks after the incident. July 2016’s police shooting of Philando Castile was perhaps the first major incident that faced the network’s streaming service. Castile later died.
The company’s spokesperson claims that its Live service is upheld by “community standards”, and asks users to report apparent violations to insure the company can “interrupt these streams as quickly as possible”.
