Facebook officials, Chicago leaders discuss Facebook Live violence

CHICAGO (WLS) -- On Thursday, Facebook tackled an ugly issue: crimes and violence streamed on Facebook Live, including high-profile cases in Chicago. The social media giant has faced an avalanche of criticism for not shutting down violent video feeds.

On Thursday Facebook representatives met with community leaders in the city's Southside.

Facebook and community leaders agreed that Thursday's meeting was positive and a step in the right direction.

Now, there will be a two-prong approach. First, they need to make sure Facebook removes troubling content quickly. Second, they need to make sure people who see it, report it.

Two Facebook officials from Washington D.C., one specializing in outreach, the other in policy, met with Rev. Jesse Jackson and Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin at Rainbow Push Headquarters.

"It was a very positive meeting," Rev. Jackson said.

"We have agreed to have a partnership, a real partnership where we're going to be able to advise them on things they may not see," Commissioner Richard Boykin, Cook County Board, 1st District, said.

This week, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, talked about his company's position.

"We're working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner -- whether that's responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down," he said.

Right now, Facebook has 4,500 Facebook employees worldwide who review reports about troubling content. During the next year, Facebook will add 3,000 new employees, build better tools to trace disturbing content, and conduct school workshops in Chicago May 18.

"People have some obligation not to find any degree of joy in such sadness and madness," Rev. Jackson said.

Rev. Jackson said the workshops are critical because people who see crimes streamed must report them too. When a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted on a live stream, 40 people watched it, but no one called police.

"There is a responsibility for people to report these heinous kinds of videos. We have an obligation to do that," Commissioner Boykin said.

Although the Facebook officials did not comment after Thursday's meeting, Facebook did release this statement, saying:

"We know we have a lot of work to do to keep senseless violence off our platform and we appreciated the discussion today about how to work together to achieve that goal."

On May 18, there will be awareness workshops at Christ the King College Prep on the Westside, and Urban Prep Academy on the Southside.

In June, Rev. Jackson and Commissioner Boykin plan to travel to Facebook headquarters in California, where they hope to meet with Mark Zuckerberg.