Facebook Live streams another shocking murder: Video of Thai father killing his toddler was slow to be taken down

The wife of the Thai man who hanged their 11-month-old daughter said she doesn't blame Facebook

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published April 26, 2017 6:19PM (EDT)

 (AP/James H. Collins)
(AP/James H. Collins)

Last week the world was shocked and appalled when a murderer in Ohio posted his successful homicide of a 74-year-old man on Facebook for the world to see. On Monday, a man in Thailand posted a pair of videos of himself hanging his 11-month-old daughter before taking his own life. Facebook has finally taken the latter pair of videos down.

The murderer, 20-year-old Wutthisan Wongthale, had a record of abuse toward his wife, according to a report by CNN. On Sunday he threatened her during an argument over his attempt to change her Facebook profile picture, prompting her to leave their home. Wongthale's cousin saw him posting the live video on Facebook on Monday right as he was tying the rope around his daughter's neck and immediately notified the girl's mother, who along with other relatives informed the police.

The police arrived roughly an hour after the live feed began, however, and by then it was too late.

The two videos that showed the child's death remained on Wongthale's page for roughly 24 hours, until Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society worked with Facebook to remove them on Tuesday afternoon. A company spokeswoman told CNN that "this is an appalling incident and our hearts go out to the family of the victim. There is absolutely no place for acts of this kind on Facebook."

Her words are reminiscent of what Mark Zuckerberg said after the Ohio murder: "We have a lot of work, and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening."

The toddler's mother, however, Chiranut Trairat, told the Associated Press, "I am not angry at Facebook or blaming them on this."

A day after the live streamed killing in Thailand, an Alabama man committed suicide and filmed the event on Facebook Live.

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By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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