The incident is the second in Chicago this year and showcases the continuous rise of crimes on social media, without going into the dark web
A 15-year-old Chicago girl who went missing on Sunday and was seen on Facebook Live being sexually assaulted by multiple young men was found on Tuesday, police said.
The girl was being treated at a local hospital after the attack, Chicago Police Department spokesman Frank Giancamilli said by email.
The girl's mother approached police Superintendent Eddie Johnson after an unrelated news conference on Monday and showed him images of her daughter being assaulted by five or six young men, Giancamilli said. Reuters does not name the victims of sexual crimes.
The mother said the girl's uncle told her on Monday morning about a video on Facebook Live that showed the assault, news station WGN reported.
The high school freshman had gone to the store on Sunday afternoon, and her mother became concerned when she did not return home, the station said.
After meeting with the mother, Johnson ordered detectives to investigate and a missing person bulletin was issued Monday night, Giancamilli said. He said police were reconstructing a timeline and working to identify the suspects.
"The Superintendent was visibly upset when he heard about the case and saw the pictures of the girl and incident on FB Live. He was also very dismayed when he learned that there were people (who) were watching the incident live and no one called police," Giancamilli said.
It was the latest incident in recent months in Chicago in which the social media site has played a role in broadcasting apparent crimes.
The shooting death last month on the city's West Side of a 2-year-old boy was captured on Facebook Live by his aunt, who was also shot.
In January, an attack by four people on a 19-year-old man with special needs was partially broadcast on the social media site. The four accused in the attack have pleaded not guilty.
During the same month, three Swedish men were arrested for gang-raping a woman and live streaming it on Facebook Live.
In April, 2016, an 18-year-old Ohio woman was accused of using Periscope, Twitter’s live streaming tool, to shoot the rape of her 17-year-old friend. In another 2014 incident, two young US teenagers beat a 39-year-old to death over a period of 17 hours. They sent selfies with her bruised body via Snapchat, then documented their ride in a police van in the same way.
DNA had touched base with Facebook in January to ask them how they are tackling such crimes.
A spokesperson said, "We believe the vast majority of people are using Facebook Live to come together and share experiences in the moment with their friends and family. But if someone does violate our Community Standards while using Live, we want to interrupt these streams as quickly as possible when they're reported to us. So we've given people a way to report violations during a live broadcast."
The spokesperson added that Facebook recognises that there are unique challenges when it comes to content and safety for Live videos. "It's a serious responsibility, we work hard to strike the right balance between enabling expression while providing a safe and respectful experience. We're deeply committed to improving the effectiveness of how we handle reports of live content that violates our Community Standards."
With Reuters Inpus
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