The Facebook Murder

A Florida man who authorities say fatally shot his wife – and apparently then posted a photo of her body on Facebook – has been charged with first-degree murder. Derek Medina, 31, killed his wife Jennifer Alfonso, 26, on Aug. 8, and then posted a horrific photo of her lifeless body slumped over on the floor of their kitchen, covered in blood.

A post on Thursday morning on a Facebook page identified as Medina’s said: “I’m going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys miss you guys takecare Facebook people you will see me in the news.” A final post titled “RIP Jennifer Alfonso” was a photograph of a woman slumped on the floor.

The photo was up for more than five hours before Facebook removed the page late on Thursday afternoon.

A Facebook spokeswoman said in an email to the Associated Press that she could not comment on a law enforcement investigation but could provide a general comment from the company.

“The content was reported to us,” the spokeswoman wrote. “We took action on the profile removing the content and disabling the profile, and we reached out to law enforcement. We take action on all content that violates our terms, which are clearly laid out on our site.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/09/florida-murder-suspect-photo-facebook

The most interesting part of the story was Facbook’s reaction:

Facebook’s reaction shows that Facebook representatives are in fact watching what you are posting and control all of your content. Facebook immediately listened, took action, and called law enforcement officials to report the murder.

This was actually a positive PR story for Facebook to show Facebook & government officials working together.  The sad part here is the number of “shares” and comments from the criminal’s friends and family in his social network. This is extremely disturbing.

“The Facebook Murder” raises the following thought- provoking questions:

Is there a real disconnect between what people are seeing online and the action they are taking?

Why did people feel this was a post to “engage” with, “comment on” and “share” rather then taking action and calling the police?

What is this really saying about our society?

Has our need to “over share” become out of control to the point where the first thing someone thinks of doing after murdering someone is posting it on Facebook?

Social Media Expert Kris Ruby Weighs in on WUSA9 in Washington D.C.