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Facebook temporarily disabled the social media accounts of a woman who was posting video of her own standoff negotiations with the police:
Baltimore police shot and killed Korryn Gaines, a 23-year-old black woman, after an hourslong standoff on Monday — during which Facebook and Instagram, at police request, temporarily shut down Gaines' accounts. [...] Police Chief Jim Johnson says Gaines was posting video of the standoff to social media as it was unfolding, which prompted police to request the deactivation of her accounts. Gaines' Facebook page is now reactivated; it does not have any videos visible to the public. On Instagram, one video apparently recorded during the standoff remains. [...] A second video, now deleted, showed a police officer with a gun drawn at Gaines' door. Facebook and Instagram have not responded to NPR's requests for comment.
[...] "Gaines was posting video of the operation as it unfolded. Followers were encouraging her not to comply with negotiators' requests that she surrender peacefully," he said. "Clearly, you can see this was an exigent circumstance where life and serious injury were in jeopardy." After a short period of time, Facebook (which owns Instagram) complied and deactivated the accounts. No data was deleted, Johnson said. Police do not have the authority to directly deactivate a social media account, Johnson and the spokeswoman both said. Facebook decides whether to comply with such requests.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday August 05 2016, @01:01AM
No it doesn't.
It prohibits the police from *legally requiring* Facebook to shut down her stream. But they're still free to ask, which seems to be all they did here. Facebook then shut it down voluntarily. Just like it says in TFS:
(Score: 2) by CirclesInSand on Friday August 05 2016, @02:57AM
Police have a lot of power, and unlimited get out of jail free cards. A request from the police is not the same thing as a request from your peers.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday August 05 2016, @08:55PM
Absolutely. And if the request was made to an individual person, there very well might be some confusion about the difference between a request and a command. Although that still doesn't mean the police can't ask, it just means they have to be very careful about *how* they ask, because if they ask in such a way that it can reasonably be considered a command then you can file a lawsuit against them later for violating your rights -- and probably win. But a massive corporation like Facebook surely has lawyers on staff to review such requests, and I don't really think it's reasonable to assume they were confused about the request. Facebook also has quite a lot of power which they could have used to fight this had they wanted to.