Thai man kills baby on Facebook Live then takes own life

A Thai man filmed himself killing his baby daughter on Facebook Live, before taking his own life, Thai police say.
The 21-year-old hanged his daughter, and then himself, at a
deserted hotel in Phuket on Monday, reportedly after an argument with his wife.

Facebook sent condolences to the family for the "appalling"
incident and said that the content had now been removed.

The company pledged a review of its processes after footage of a US killing stayed online for hours this month.

The footage of the Thai killing had also been available on video sharing website YouTube, but the company took it down after the media alerted it to its presence.

Social media anger Relatives of the Thai man, Wuttisan Wongtalay, saw the distressing footage and alerted the 
police - but the authorities arrived too late to save him and
 his daughter.

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: "This is an
appalling incident and our hearts go out to the family of the
victim. There is absolutely no place for content of this kind
 on Facebook and it has now been removed."

Reuters said two videos were posted, at 16:50 (09:50 GMT) and 16:57 on Monday, and were taken down at about 17:00 on
Tuesday, roughly 24 hours later. Facebook has yet to confirm the time.

Thailand's ministry of digital economy said it had contacted
Facebook on Tuesday afternoon about removing the videos.

Ministry spokesman Somsak Khaosuwan told Reuters: "We will not be able to press charges against Facebook, because
Facebook is the service provider and they acted according to their protocol when we sent our request. They co-operated very well."

YouTube said it had taken down the video within 15
 minutes of being told of its presence.

Its statement read: "YouTube has clear policies that
 outline what's acceptable to post and we quickly remove videos that break our rules when they're flagged."

Shortly before the BBC alerted YouTube, the video was showing 2,351 views.

Thai social media users reacted with anger to the
 footage, while offering condolences to the family of the girl.

Devastated relatives of the child, including the mother, 
picked up the body of the girl and her father from hospital 
on Tuesday Following the US killing, Facebook said it was "constantly exploring ways that new technologies can help us make sure Facebook is a safe environment".

"We prioritise reports with serious safety implications for our
community, and are working on making that review process go even faster," blogged one of its executives last week.

This latest atrocity comes less than a fortnight after a US 
man bragged on Facebook Live about his murder of a 74-year-old man in Cleveland, having also posted a video of the killing to the social network.

The platform's chief, Mark Zuckerberg, subsequently
acknowledged he had "a lot of work" to do after it emerged 
the murder clip had remained online for more than two hours despite Facebook having received complaints in the meantime.

Prior to that, Facebook Live broadcast the death of a Chicago
man who was shot in the neck and head last June, and then in
July a woman streamed the death of her boyfriend after he was shot by police in Minneapolis .

There have also been reports of sexual assaults, animal
 abuse and teenage suicide having been shown.

For its part, Facebook is trying to find ways for its review team -
which employs thousands of people - to react to such 
content more quickly.

In addition, the firm has developed software to prevent 
such footage being reshared in full on its service at a later point.

And it is also exploring the use of artificial intelligence to
automatically flag videos and photos that need to be
 reviewed rather than waiting for other users to report them.

What it hasn't discussed is the idea of scrapping Facebook Live altogether.

With Twitter and YouTube, among others, offering rival live-
streaming products, doing so could put it at a disadvantage.
But as a result, there will inevitably be further outrages and
criticism because Facebook Live's popularity makes it all but
impossible for the firm to keep a human eye over each

broadcast.