The murder of Alison Parker, television journalist and Adam Ward, cameraman, was captured on video. It was shared across social media.
According to Alison’s father Andy Parker, that footage is still out there. Andy Parker and others have tried to remove that footage from every platform.
“I was aware that the video of Alison’s murder consumed pages and pages and pages on YouTube,”Parker stated.
“I was just stunned that it had proliferated, that YouTube would allow that kind of graphic content and murder on their platforms when they clearly say, ‘No, we don’t allow this.'”
Parker stated that it is his family’s responsibility to ensure that the footage is deleted. But that shouldn’t happen. “Google’s answer was, ‘Well, you have to flag every one of them,'”He said. “Me, me, me personally. ‘You have to flag videos that you feel are inappropriate.’ It’s like, you’re asking me to watch my daughter’s murder over and over and over again. That isn’t going to happen.”
Parker believes that the problem is not with the people who post the videos, but rather the large digital platforms that enabled it to happen.
“These social media platforms, they’re protected from any kind of liability,”He said. “You can’t sue them for doing this stuff.”
This is because Section 230 (1996) Communications Decency Act gives digital platforms a legal protection.
“We wouldn’t have these problems if you took away the immunity from these platforms to be sued,”Eric Feinberg stated.
He is an activist for the Coalition for a Safer Web. He has been working with the Parker family to remove the videos. Section 230 is nearly prohibitive.
“Section 230 is an anti-consumer protection law,”He said. “It does not allow for someone like Andy and Barbara to litigate or go after these companies.”
Parker met with the Georgetown University Civil Rights Law Clinic to discuss his options for approaching Google and Facebook.
“We tried to be nice and say, ‘You need to do the right thing,'”He said. “And, of course, that got no response.
“We finally filed an FTC Complaint last February 2020.” he continued. “It’s been two years since we filed an FTC lawsuit against Google for violating their terms and service. They claim, “We don’t allow this.””
Google has not responded to the 2020 FTC complaint.
In a 2020 statement to the Washington Post, YouTube said it had removed thousands of videos of Parker’s shooting since 2015, adding, “Our Community Guidelines are designed to protect the YouTube community, including those affected by tragedies.”
The statement continued, “We rigorously enforce these policies using a combination of machine learning technology and human review. … We will continue to stay vigilant and improve our policy enforcement.”
But Parker says the videos can still be found. And not just on Google’s platforms.
“We know there are still videos on Facebook of Alison’s death.” he said. “That’s why we filed the FTC complaint against Facebook. Facebook claims they have taken the complaint down. It’s as if Mark Zuckerberg is basically telling me, ‘Screw you. O.K., Congress and the FTC are a joke. I can do whatever you want.”
According to Parker, the platforms profit from having this footage. “They can use social media platforms to do this. But they don’t want to. So, what is the motivation? Why is this motivation so important? What is the motivation?” he said.
“It’s because advertisers know and most people don’t know that clicking on a link will increase your engagement so they can show it to their clients.” he said.
“They make money even if you click an ad. If you click on an ad, it’s not when you click. However, if your click on another video, the scroll bar to the right of the column is where you can see all the related videos.”
Parker said that every time someone clicks on that, they’re collecting a person’s data, and they can turn around and sell that data to advertisers.
“They do exactly that. They can monetize it.” he said. “It makes them money. They want you to stay on the platforms and won’t take it down.”
Feinberg said advertisers have a role to play in all of this, too. “Where these platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, get their oxygen is advertisers,” he said. “Advertising brands must play a greater role and be more proactive when using these platforms.”
“More companies, more brands in the advertising industry need to take ownership of this with us.”
Parker insists that keeping the videos on the platform isn’t a First Amendment issue.
“You can’t show a murder clip and have it displayed on your platform. That’s not free speech.” he said, “It’s savagery and that’s it, plain and simple.”
And the grieving father said he’d like to see more legal action.
“It is up to Congress.” he said. “I would like to see Congress do Alison’s Law. This will limit the scope of amendments to section 2 30 and prohibit hate speech, harassment, murder video, and violent content. Let’s make it more actionable by adding that to the section.”
“We must take down these platforms that allow this type of harmful, toxic content.” Feinberg noted. “Andy could sue Facebook and YouTube if there were no immunity. He could also sue YouTube and any other platform that Alison’s videos are up there. They have no incentive to remove it because they are covered by the 1996 archaic law giving them immunity.”
In response to the FTC complaint, Facebook said in a statement, “These videos are in violation of our policies. We will continue to remove them from the platform, just as we have done since the first incident.
“We are also continuing to proactively detect and remove visually similar videos when they are uploaded,”They added.
Feinberg claimed that so far, however, the complaint had not resulted in any concrete actions. “I can still go on Facebook as we speak. I can find Alison. I can still find videos of that horrific attack. It’s been three weeks now since the FTC complaint has been filed, and there’s been no action. And part of the FTC complaint was that their reporting systems are archaic, obsolete, and we got no response. The videos are still up.”
Parker still wants legislation to address this larger issue in the future.
“I want to see Congress lift their liability immunity so that we can have our day in court,”He said. “That’s what I want to see. I want to see Google and Facebook brought to justice for the pain and the suffering and cruelty that they’ve inflicted on not just me, but a lot of people.”