Twitter, Facebook disable accounts with shooting footage

Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday morning quickly shut down accounts apparently linked to the suspected shooter of a CBS news crew in Virginia.

The accounts linked to the name Bryce Williams posted a video that appeared to show the gunman in the moments before he shot and killed two reporters for WDBJ7, Alison Parker and Adam Ward. The person they were interviewing was also shot in the attack.

{mosads}The gunman shot the news crew in the middle of an on-air broadcast, video of which has been aired on cable news.

The chilling footage of the attack posted on the accounts was taken from the shooters’ perspective, and was accompanied by a series of messages that could suggest possible motives in the killings.

Bryce Williams was reportedly the on-air name of a former employee of the news station, Vester Flanagan. Officials have said Flanagan is the suspect and appears to be a disgruntled former employee of the station.

Soon after law enforcement released the name of the suspected gunman, a series of accounts linked to the Williams name began circulating on social media.

Users immediately began urging the social media companies to block the accounts, with some warning of Twitter’s autoplay feature.

In June, Twitter rolled out a new feature that plays posted videos automatically when a user scrolls over it. Users can disable the feature in their settings. 

Minutes after the videos were posted, the accounts were no longer accessible.

A message on Twitter said “account suspended,” while a message on Facebook said “this content is currently unavailable.” Facebook said it removed the profile for violating community standards that “prohibit you from celebrating any crimes you’ve committed.”

Video from the shooter migrated to other online sites, with some popping up on YouTube. A spokesperson for the site, owned by Google, said it removes those kind of videos when they are flagged.

“Our hearts go out to the families affected by this terrible crime. YouTube has clear policies against videos containing gratuitous violence and we remove them when they are flagged,” a spokesperson said.

Both Twitter and YouTube acted quickly to remove video that began circulating last year of the execution of U.S. journalist James Foley by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. At the time, Twitter’s CEO said it would “actively suspend” accounts linked to the video.

—Updated at 12:48 p.m.