Ms Niamh Sweeney:

Senator Lombard is right that it is difficult to monitor the issue. Most of the time Facebook Live is used in a good way and highlights great injustices. Most people became aware of Facebook Live when somebody in the US started to film proceedings when their partner, while in the driver's seat of their car, was shot by law enforcement. It can be seen how Facebook Live is a useful tool and a powerful tool in some ways.

One of the ways we were criticised early on, and we had to make serious changes, and again the engineering capability was brought to bear on the matter, was where in a couple of rare cases, although they do happen, a person started to Facebook Live and gave the clear indication that they were about to take their own life. It was not possible at that point for our reviewers to come in midway through a live feed and to see back what had happened from the start, because it is not always obvious. One might be presented with a certain scene but one is not seeing all the parts of it. We had to reconfigure the technology drastically so that people could alert us to an imminent threat of self-harm.

People often ask why Facebook leaves it up when a person is clearly showing this is where he or she is headed with it. We do not make our policies in a bubble. Ms Cummiskey's team consult very widely and globally because there are regional differences in views and how to approach these issues. Among the very clear feedback that we have received is that while a person is still filming, he or she is not doing it, which means there is still a chance for intervention. Therefore, if we shut off a feed while a person is in the middle of a video where he or she has clearly indicated that is where he or she is headed, that can almost be more damaging in itself when there is still a chance for intervention. In fact, there have been many cases where somebody has reported it while Facebook Live has continued, which means it becomes a high-priority report that gets reviewed much more quickly than something else, law enforcement has been reached out to and people have been saved as a result. The Senator is right that it is a very challenging space. We do not monitor what happens. We rely on user reports. That is one of the ways that we try to deal with it.