The live streaming of crimes is a phenomenon in which people live stream criminal acts. Due to the fact publishing to social media is done with the intent of others viewing the published materials, it is often impossible to protect the privacy of the victims or people involved.
History
In April 2016, Marina Lonina and Raymond Gates were arrested in Ohio on charges that Gates raped an underage friend of Lonina's while Lonina live streamed the crime on Periscope. The prosecutor pointed out that Lonina, who was taken advantage of by a much older man, had gotten "caught up" in her excitement over the number of "likes" she was getting, and is shown on screen "laughing and giggling". Joss Wright of the Oxford Internet Institute pointed out that, given the "volume of content being created and uploaded every day, is almost no practical way to prevent content like this being uploaded and shared". By May, The New York Times was including the Ohio Periscope rape as one of a series of recent cases in which crimes were live streamed. These included one in which a young woman in Égly, France, speaks via Periscope about her distress and suicidal thoughts and is apparently encouraged by viewers to kill herself, which she does by throwing herself under a train. Also included was the case of two teenagers who live stream themselves bragging and laughing as they beat up a drunken man in a bar in Bordeaux, France.
Cybersex trafficking, also referred to as live streaming sexual abuse, involves sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual acts and or rape on webcam. Victims are abducted, threatened, or deceived and transferred to "cybersex dens". The dens can be in any location where the cybersex traffickers have a computer, tablet, or phone with Internet connection. Perpetrators use social media networks, videoconferences, pornographic video sharing websites, dating pages, online chat rooms, apps, dark web sites, and other platforms. They use online payment systems and cryptocurrencies to hide their identities. Millions of reports of its occurrence are sent to authorities annually. New laws and police procedures are needed to combat this type of cybercrime.
Instances
2017
In early 2017, a young girl committed suicide, after her friends were bullying her. She aired the entire suicide on Facebook.
3 January: A torture incident in Chicago, in which a man with a mental disability in Chicago, Illinois, was filmed being physically and verbally abused by four individuals. The torture was live streamed by one of the women on Facebook and sparked massive controversy.
Early January: An American woman taped her toddler to the wall and live streamed it on Facebook Live.
9 October: The shooting near a synagogue and kebab stand in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, which resulted in two dead and two others injured by the attacker, was live streamed on Twitch.
29 December: A gunman opened fire at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, fatally shooting two people before he was shot and killed by an armed member of the congregation. The shooting was live streamed on YouTube because the church live streamed its services.
2020
8 February: A Thai Army Sergeant killed 29 and wounded 58 people in the Nakhon Ratchasima shootings in Thailand. A portion of the second shooting at the Terminal 21 Korat mall was live streamed by the perpetrator on Facebook Live.
