Facebook tries to fix violent video issue with new employees

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook Inc will hire 3,000 more people over the next year to speed up the removal of videos showing murder, suicide and other violent acts, in its most dramatic move yet to combat the biggest threat to its valuable public image.

The hiring spree, announced by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, comes after users were shocked by two video posts last month showing killings in Thailand and the United States.

The move is an acknowledgment by Facebook that it needs more than its recent focus on automated software to identify and remove such material.

"Given the importance of this, how quickly live video is growing, we wanted to make sure that we double down on this and make sure that we provide as safe of an experience for the community as we can," Zuckerberg told investors after the company's earnings late on Wednesday.

The problem has become more pressing since the introduction last year of Facebook Live, a service that allows any of Facebook's 1.9 billion monthly users to broadcast video, which has been marred by some violent scenes.

Some violence on Facebook is inevitable given its size, researchers say, but the company has been attacked, most recently by British lawmakers, for its slow response.

Reuters