Facebook last month pledged to "do better" after a man in Cleveland shot and killed an elderly individual and posted a video of the murder on the social network. Now, the company is making good on that promise.
In a Wednesday post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will be adding 3,000 people to its community operations team to "review the millions of reports we get every week, and improve the process for doing it quickly." That's on top of the 4,500 reviewers Facebook currently employs.
"Over the last few weeks, we've seen people hurting themselves and others on Facebook – either live or in video posted later," Zuckerberg wrote. "It's heartbreaking, and I've been reflecting on how we can do better for our community. If we're going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly."
He went on to say that Facebook is also "working to make these videos easier to report" so the company can more quickly remove the video and/or get the person help.
In the case of the Cleveland murder, Facebook said it received a report about the video containing the shooting more than an hour and 45 minutes after it was posted. The company disabled the suspect's account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report about the murder video, but admitted that's not good enough.
The crime followed several disturbing incidents captured on Facebook Live, from shootings to sexual assault. The social network has also had to grapple with teens and tweens live streaming their own suicides; Facebook has since integrated its suicide prevention tools into Live, so if you're watching a broadcast and someone expresses suicidal thoughts, you can report the video and get the person help.
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Zuckerberg in his post today said the company is "going to make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact law enforcement if someone needs help."
He said Facebook just last week received a report that someone on Live was considering suicide.
"We immediately reached out to law enforcement, and they were able to prevent him from hurting himself," Zuckerberg wrote. "In other cases, we weren't so fortunate."
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