It came to be learned, on March 10, 2022, that Meta Platforms would, in a temporary change to its so-called “hate-speech” policy, allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion. As reported by Reuters, who reviewed internal company emails sent to content moderators, also allowed are some posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
My object of focus here is not to advocate for a particular nation in this new war, or to rationalize death threats being permitted on social media, or to marshal support for propelling the United States into another foreign war, or to denounce Putin’s monstrous actions in a far-off land.
I mean only that the promotion of violence and death on social media is anything but ad interim, an assertion that has been factual and easily demonstrated long before the initiation of this conflict, for if this change to allow threats of death on these social media platforms is indeed provisional, then this should not be taken to mean that other dehumanizing aspects of the technology are not an everlasting element of its composition. Indeed, violence and death seem to be a consistent and compatible theme that is ever-present.
On March 1, 2022, law enforcement executives and officials from crime monitoring agencies across the nation assembled on Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing to address the sharply rising trend of carjackings, many of which have been carried out by kids.
As reported by the news station FOX 5 New York, “Carjackings have skyrocketed 200% — or more — in multiple big cities across the county in past years, as law enforcement officials and crime experts pleaded with lawmakers…for help addressing the rampant issue, with one official warning: ‘Anyone in a car is a potential victim.’”
According to the news outlet, Dallas Police Department Chief Edgardo Garcia, who spoke on behalf of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, testified that many of the carjackings are “committed by juveniles seeking to gain notoriety on social media…”
Naturally, those who pay mind to these sorts of cultural inclinations accompanied by social media have known for some time how the technology carries with it the ability to impress the human mind, for social media enables users to not only connect with other people but to also connect to unconventional mindsets, like a deterioration of temperament and the exaltation of fierceness, torture, self-harm, lawlessness, sexual immorality and even death.
Various ways in which one might come to be impaired through their social efforts have long been disclosed, and I must magnify their impacts here. Of course, what I am about to say should not be taken to imply that social media cannot be used for admirable purposes, or that all who use it will procure a baleful outcome, or that some who use it will inevitably be inspired to carry out carjackings, or worse.
I am simply trying to show how social media, like every other form of technology, is an amalgam of both the beneficial and detrimental. You will not hear this sort of impression of our supposedly social platforms spoken often among its users and those who organize these networks. They would have us believe that social media is a purely wholesome tool that is being wielded for the betterment of cultural communication and other commendable purposes, and I do not seek to dismiss that, in some ways, this is so. But there is more to it than just that.
For example, destructive mindsets are often promoted through the use of our “social” technologies, one of which is the “Skull Breaker Challenge,” an online dare which consists of three people lining up to jump, to which the two people on the outside kick the middle person’s legs out from under them. KARK, an NBC affiliate, reported that, because of the stunt, which originated on the media app TikTok, one student at Southeast Arkansas Preparatory High School suffered a concussion.
There is also the Blue Whale Challenge, which calls upon participants to complete a series of tasks before taking their own lives. Suicides in Russia, Brazil and a half dozen other countries were reportedly linked to the challenge in cases that, as reported by CBS News, usually involve teenagers or young adults. Parents say that teens reach out to game administrators called curators through various social media platforms, who then guide the players through 50 days of challenges including watching scary movie clips, cutting symbols into their arms and legs, and taking pictures of themselves in dangerous positions, such as on the edge of a roof or on train tracks.
The participants, as detailed by the news outlet, are required to take pictures of themselves completing their challenges, in addition to sharing them before being directed to end their lives on the 50th day. CBS News further noted that a search of related hashtags on Instagram showed users posting pictures of scars and cuts or memes that depict suicide, while a similar Twitter search showed users reaching out for curators to lead them through the game. “It's a reminder of one of the many dangers and vulnerabilities that children face using various social media and apps online every day," stated agent Michelle Lee, of the FBI’s San Antonio, Texas office, to CBS News. "Parents must remain vigilant and monitor their child's usage of the internet.”
In July, 2017, Texas teen Isaiah Gonzalez was found hanging in his bedroom closet, an incident in which video footage recorded his death by way of his cellphone propped up against a shoe. Isaiah’s sister Alexis told WOAI-TV that someone behind the challenge had gathered personal information from him and had threatened to harm their family. One Georgia woman told CNN in the same month that her 16-year-old daughter killed herself as part of the challenge.
On March 22, 2021, a 12-year-old boy from Colorado was found unconscious after choking himself while participating in TikTok’s “Blackout Challenge,” and later died after being on life support. According to the family’s GoFundMe page, they urged the community to “spread awareness” about “the real risks involved in not having knowledge of what kinds of activities children are involved in."
USA Today reported that a 12-year-old boy in Oklahoma met the same fate. “Social media challenges,” remarked the news outlet, “are especially attractive to adolescents, who look to their peers for cues about what's cool, crave positive reinforcement from their friends and social networks, and are more prone to risk-taking behaviors, particularly when they know they're being observed by those whose approval they covet.”
Sometimes, a seemingly harmless desire to interact socially with others on social media services and other digital forums, or even to utilize the many digital services on the web, can place the welfare of users in grave jeopardy. As reported by Reuters, a 16-year-old girl in Sarawak, Malaysia, jumped to her death after petitioning her social media following to vote on whether she should commit suicide, to which she ran a poll on Instagram asking whether she should choose between “D/L,” meaning “Death” or “Life.”
In further probing this malefic phase of the social life, it is worth mentioning the consequences live-streaming content can have in culture, for it is another sample of a medium advancing to us a new orientation for sensibility. Indeed, for in oral and print-based cultures, it would be thought of by most as unwise to strive to document and publicize one’s offenses, because a decision to do so would inevitably lead to a forceful and public reconciliation of their wrongdoings. But it seems that the image-based nature of social media communicates to us that it can be beneficial to broadcast one’s crimes, that it is preferable to have others observe, understand and identify with our scandals, that we should not denounce one’s societal misdeeds, but instead repackage them as an agreeable form of recreation for content creators and, of course, transmit them as a gratifying source of entertainment for those who view them.
In addition to serving as a pathway where users might descry questionable material, social media also possesses the capacity to make such substance widely available, including attempts to live-stream criminal activity, violent acts, sexual immorality, torture and even one’s demise at their own hand, occurrences that are always on the rise. I should like to highlight Facebook Live in addition to other streaming platforms, for it is a suitable example of a digital forum that has long been used effectively to live-stream and normalize dehumanizing components. And we can see that that this emerging trend, referred to some as “reality violence,” is a consistent matter of intrigue for those who take pleasure in viewing them.
“Facebook Live allows anyone to broadcast a video directly from their smartphone to the social network,” commented The Guardian. “Despite a wide-reaching advertising campaign urging people to use the feature to share heartwarming life moments it’s gained a reputation for much grittier subject matter: the torture of a young man with disabilities in Chicago; the musings of a spree killer being chased by police; child abuse and now gang rape.”
The Associated Press reported that in Clearwater Beach, Florida, a man broadcasted live on Facebook while driving down the beach, an incident in which he ran over beach chairs and umbrellas while drinking a bottle of Canadian Mist whiskey. “We’re goin’ die tonight,” the man said in the Facebook video. One 38-year-old mother in Monroe, Connecticut, Lisa Nussbaum, was charged with risk of injury to a minor, after she posted a video to her Facebook depicting her 10-year-old son driving her Jeep Grand Cherokee.
One female teen rapper called Molly Brazy was investigated by police after she pointed a gun at a toddler’s head on Facebook Live, a video reported by The Mirror as being viewed more than 170,000 times. Another Facebook Live showed a May 8, 2017 abduction in West Virginia, which led to a police chase that spanned more than 60 miles. The victim, as reported by ABC Charleston affiliate WCHS-TV was forced to drive for nearly an hour, and was stabbed in the leg, while also sustaining injuries to his neck, wrist and arm.
In Stockton California, CBS13 reported that a group of teens attacked an 8-year-old victim, in which they stole his bike and forced him into a home where he was beaten, in addition to posting the footage on social media. “Just what we saw in that video shows the suspects beating up our victim for no apparent reason and they want to put it on social media for everyone to see; these people should be held accountable for their actions, and that is what our investigators are doing right now,” detailed Stockton Police spokesman Joe Silva.
In July, 2016, one livestream depicted a shooting spree directed towards three men in their car in Norfolk, Virginia, an occurrence that left one of the victims critically injured. On June 18, 2017, seven people were injured after a horrifying overnight shootout took place in Myrtle Beach, North Carolina, which was captured on Facebook Live. On May 13, 2017, local musician Jared McLemore set himself on fire on Facebook Live before darting into a crowded bar in Memphis, Tennessee. McLemore, as reported by NBC News, died the next day from severe burns, while the video from the incident showed the man seated while pouring kerosene all over his body, who then lit himself on fire and ran off screen.
Another viral video posted by two teenagers on Facebook Live depicted the sexual and physical assault of a woman; “Once again, we are witnessing the dark side of social media,” noted Gulfport Police Chief Leonard Papania, to reporters. “These warrants demonstrate our belief about these three individuals and their criminal acts. However, I can’t help but be disturbed by the incredible number of shares and views of this crude and despicable event … It speaks loudly about our culture.” He added that, “I wish people would look at just how warped our society has become.” One of the teenage suspects turned herself into police and was arrested on charges of felony kidnapping and sexual assault.
In the UK, an 18-year-old man and his 16-year-old girl accomplice held a 16-year-old girl hostage for over eight hours, in which they made their victim snort a mixture of salt and tea, in addition forcing her to consuming urine-soaked noodles. The pair posted the footage on Snapchat as followers suggested ways they might torture the victim.
In Sweden, a court jailed three men on April 25, 2017, for the rape of a woman that was broadcasted live on Facebook. In 2016, an Ohio teenager live-streamed the rape of her 17-year-old friend, an incident in which the prosecutor noted that “she got caught up in the ‘likes.’” In Ohio, a 20-year-old woman, India Kirksey, livestreamed footage of her raping a 4-year-old boy, and was charged with felony rape, reported ABC affiliate WCPO. The footage was shared on the livestreaming app Periscope, and in an interview with police, Kirksey confessed to performing oral sex on the toddler.
In Russia, the disturbing trend of “death-streaming” consists of video content creators broadcasting humiliation, torture and death on streaming platforms, content some viewers even pay for. In December, 2020, a Russian YouTuber was arrested after he transmitted a live broadcast in which he forced his pregnant girlfriend, who was wearing only her underwear, out on a balcony in freezing weather. It was reported by The Sun that the man was paid money by his online followers to inflict the abuse on his girlfriend, who died as a result of the stunt.
In another incident, authorities believe that, on January 19, 2017, Calvin Louis Blackshire Jr. arrived at a Motel 6 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, only to be robbed; in the ordeal, someone stole his cellphone, shoes and shot him, all while being livestreamed to Facebook. After Blackshire Jr. died in the hospital the morning after, police asked the public’s help in revealing the identity of who livestreamed the content.
On Easter Sunday in 2017, retired foundry worker Robert Goodwin was collecting cans when a man approached him and fatally shot him for apparently no reason, to which the video showed a mass of blood. The chilling footage uploaded to Facebook Live prompted Cleveland police and the FBI to launch a manhunt, an occurrence that even spurred Facebook to remove the original video of the murder from its platform.
In January, 2021, a 15-year-old girl was stabbed to death inside a Louisiana Walmart store, FOX 5 New York reported. “The whole murder was played out on [social media]," detailed Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso, during a news conference. "There appeared to be no remorse. It was very cold.” Mancuso added, “Our whole case unfolded before us through live Facebook and Instagram. We have videos of everything that took place and it's very disturbing, it truly is." In June, 2021 in Riverview, Florida, a man confessed in a live video streamed on Facebook to killing “the love of his life” before killing himself, as reported by the Associated Press. In one Brazilian Instagram livestream, two twin sisters were forced to kneel before being shot in the back of the head.
According to The Miami Herald, one 14-year-old girl hanged herself on January 22, 2017, in which she live-streamed the tragedy. In April, 2017, Reuters reported that a Thai man filmed himself killing his 11-month-old daughter in two video clips posted on Facebook before committing suicide. The footage from Thailand showed Wuttisan Wongtalay tying a rope to his daughter Natalie's neck before dropping the child from the rooftop of a deserted building in the seaside town of Phuket. “This is the most evil clip I've seen in my life," recounted one user, Avada Teeraponkoon, who witnessed the ordeal. "I couldn't stand it for more than one second."
In Baldwin County, Alabama, the television station WEAR-TV reported that a man broadcasted his own suicide on the platform, in which he shot himself in the head with a rifle. In 2020, a 33-year-old Army veteran shot himself in the head in a Facebook livestream. In May, 2021, S2K Wya, an Instagram influencer in California, live-streamed his suicide after authorities chased him for allegedly tying up his girlfriend and abusing her.
And though it is well to note that Facebook Live and other social media platforms have made it effortless to live stream criminal activity and suicidal actions, attempts to publicize one’s death has been persistent long before the platform’s launch; one of the earliest cases of a live-streamed suicide was Abraham Biggs in 2008, to which the 19-year-old Florida teen had posted multiple times on an online body-building message board that he was planning to kill himself. Eventually, he linked to a live-stream site called Justin.tv, to which the video showed him overdosing on prescription pills.
But this rewriting of our cultural sensibility has only intensified following the rise of Covid-19 in 2020, for such trends can also be fueled through so-called “distance learning.” According to CBS13 on December 2, 2020, an 11-year-old elementary school student killed himself while in his Zoom distance learning class in Woodbridge, California.
Some assert that, as more unwary viewers allow themselves to survey increasing levels of criminality, violence, sexual misconduct and death, normalization of this kind of demeanor in culture is bound to transpire. As a result, the producers of these violent live-streams increasingly seek to maximize the shock value of their work.
“The videos are posted by people seeking attention, even feelings of empowerment,” observed The Washington Post. “Now, experts worry about copycat offenders and, worse, people seeking to ‘one-up’ the gruesomeness of the last viral video.” In February, 2020, a disgruntled soldier in Thailand went on a 16-hour shooting rampage, killing at least 26 people and wounding dozens more, in which he posted angry statements on his Facebook page, in addition to a selfie showing him in military gear. In one video update, the shooter made note of his exhaustion at the hand of shooting his victims. In May, 2020, the man who shot at least three people at an Arizona shopping complex, Armando Hernandez, videotaped himself planning the attack in a video posted to Snapchat.
Nonetheless, the issue of live-streaming criminal activity, dehumanizing material and suicide to Facebook is so prevalent that the company was forced, some time ago, to take notice- it was reported that social network would dispatch artificial intelligence and update its tools and services to help prevent suicides amongst its users. In a March 1, 2017, blogpost, the company said artificial intelligence would be used to help spot users with suicidal tendencies, though many pointed out that Facebook already utilized AI to monitor offensive material in live video streams. The updated tools reportedly allow users watching a live video to reach out to the person directly and report the video to Facebook.
Broadcasting criminality is thought to maximize emotional impact, a view we can assume was shared by Jack the Ripper, the unidentified and infamous serial killer of the late 1800’s referenced by The Guardian article, who sent letters about his murders to the police and local press. Some go as far to say that the attention that might be attained from vast online audiences, reinforced by immediate feedback in the form of shares, likes and other “engagement” indicators, can be intoxicating in its own right.
“A lot of younger people have grown up under self-surveillance. They are always on camera, taking pictures, selfies and driving towards the big umbrella of oversharing,” noted Raymond Surette, professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida, to the news website. “There’s a snapshot culture,” adds Sveinung Sandberg, who has been studying why people film their crimes in Norway, to The Guardian. “If we come across something extraordinary it doesn’t count unless we’ve filmed it or taken a picture. It becomes an instinct.”
And while some assert that legislation might be key in mitigating this sort of dehumanizing content, it remains to be seen how lawmakers might define the concept, in addition to what might come of victims who consent to participating. Others purport that the moral decay found in America can be, at least in part, attributed to our culture’s multifarious methods of social engagement. In their view, Facebook has turned the functionality of culture into that of a high school hallway, rife with explicit tones, theatrical drama, self-absorption, a thirst for attention, bragging rights, petty gossip, bickering, rivalry and aggression, and in doing so disallowing much expression of the better angels of our nature.
Indeed, to that point, we can see that our culture’s remarkable lust for social media “likes” quite plainly has a tendency to bring out the worst decisions in people. In Algeria, a man dangled his baby cousin out of a 15th-floor window in the Capital of Algiers, in which he posted a photo on Facebook with the caption “1000 likes or I will drop him.” The child appeared to be in a state of fear and bewilderment, according to the Saudi television broadcaster Al Arabiya, and the man was sentenced to two years in prison for the stunt.
It should be clear to see that dehumanizing substance on social media is not a rare thing to find. And though I will not confute that the examples I have provided are amongst the extreme of the medium’s ills, they are nonetheless illustrative of the “social” environment breeded by the need to gather, sustain, and entertain an audience. To be sure, “entertaining ourselves to death,” it seems, is more than the title of Neil Postman’s landmark book. It is now reality.
Enjoyed this take on social media.
I feel it is now more than ever used as a reactionary tool to proffer an opinion amidst the countless other opinions that exist. It is in many ways reality TV in real time. I guess violence (rather sadly) provides another 'draw card' for the average user to react either in disgust or support for whatever that is being showcased. I also tend to see it as a digitised re-enactment of what Nick Couldry once labelled as "ritual theory' - the collective desire people have to be part of 'something greater', a media world that transcends the everyday even when it purports to reflect it.