Livestreamed crime

Crime that is livestreamed on the internet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Livestreamed crime is a phenomenon in which criminal acts are publicly livestreamed on social media platforms such as Twitch or Facebook Live.

Due to the fact that livestreams are accessible instantaneously, it is difficult to quickly detect and moderate violent content, and almost impossible to protect the privacy of victims or bystanders.[1][2][3][4] Livestreaming crime allows anyone from the public to become a distant witness.[5]

"Trash streaming" is a YouTube subculture in which livestreamers solicit donations in exchange for carrying out dares on-stream, which are often abusive or criminal.[6]

History

In April 2016, Marina Lonina, age 18; and Raymond Gates, age 29, were arrested in Ohio, US, on charges that Gates raped an underage friend of Lonina's while Lonina live streamed the crime on Periscope.[7][8] The prosecutor pointed out that Lonina, who was taken advantage of by a much older man, had become "caught up" in her excitement over the number of "likes" she was getting, and is shown on screen "laughing and giggling".[7] Joss Wright of the Oxford Internet Institute pointed out that, given the "volume of content being created and uploaded every day, [there] is almost no practical way to prevent content like this being uploaded and shared".[8]

By May, The New York Times was including the Periscope rape as one of a series of recent cases in which crimes were live streamed. These included one in which a young woman in Égly, France, spoke via Periscope about her distress and suicidal thoughts and was apparently encouraged by viewers to kill herself, which she did by throwing herself under a train. Also included was the case of two teenagers who live streamed themselves bragging and laughing as they beat up a drunken man in a bar in Bordeaux, France.[9]

Types

Summarize
Perspective

Cybersex trafficking

Cybersex trafficking, also referred to as live streaming sexual abuse,[10][11][12] involves sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual abuse or rape.[13][14][15] Victims are abducted, threatened, or deceived and transferred to "cybersex dens".[16][17][18] The dens can be in any location where the cybersex traffickers have a computer, tablet, or phone with Internet connection.[14] Perpetrators use social media networks, videoconferencing, pornographic video sharing websites, dating pages, chat rooms, apps, dark web sites,[19] and other online platforms.[20] Online payment systems[19][21][22] and cryptocurrencies are often used for anonymity.[23] Millions of reports of cybersex trafficking are sent to authorities annually.[24][failed verification] Local authorities in Cambodia have expressed concern that new laws and police procedures are necessary to combat this type of cybercrime.[25]

War crimes and cyberterrorism

A war crime is the act of breaking the laws of war, and in recent years, there have been more instances of people or groups live-streaming such acts to instill fear into the public. Some groups create websites or use the dark web to host these live streams.[citation needed][examples needed] Many times, the videos are of hostages or prisoners of war that are used as leverage or as a means of exerting fear and control.[examples needed]

Instances

2008

  • 8 June: A bystander livestreamed the Akihabara massacre on Ustream, attracting an audience of 2,000 viewers. Another user also used Ustream to livestream the massacre's aftermath, including police and public response.[26]

2015

  • 12 July: Two West Weber, Utah teenagers were arrested after filming themselves stealing ice cream from a truck while livestreaming on Periscope.[27]

2016

2017

2018

  • 22 February: A Middletown, Connecticut man livestreamed himself on Facebook Live as he drove through the front doors of a hospital, before setting himself on fire. The man was treated for burn injuries and arrested.[38]
  • 4 April: A Detroit teenager accidentally shot his friend while playing with a gun on Instagram Live.[39]
  • 26 August: David Katz shot 12 people during a video game tournament, killing two. The shooting was livestreamed by the event's Twitch stream.[40]

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

  • 25 March: A Columbus, Mississippi woman fatally shot a man in a domestic violence incident on Facebook Live.[71]
  • 26 March: At a Starbucks in Vancouver, British Columbia, 37-year-old Paul Schmidt was fatally stabbed by Inderdeep Singh Gosal after requesting him not to vape around his young daughter. Bystander Alex Bodger livestreamed and commentated to TikTok Schmidt bleeding to death without offering any assistance.[72][73]
  • 10 April: 25-year-old Connor James Sturgeon livestreamed on Instagram as he opened fire at a bank he previously worked at in Louisville, Kentucky, killing five and wounding eight before being fatally shot by police.[74]
  • 25 April: Two women in Holmes County, Mississippi were fatally shot on Facebook Live after a fight.[75]
  • 27 April: A Minneapolis man barricaded himself for several hours in a standoff with the FBI before being fatally shot, all while livestreaming on Facebook Live. [76]
  • 23 May: Two men were attacked with a knife while livestreaming on Douyin in Xiamen, China.[77]
  • 7 June: A Shreveport, Louisiana woman "fired wildly" during an argument on a Facebook Live broadcast.[78]
  • 16 June: A Doda, Jammu and Kashmir man murdered a relative with an axe during a Facebook Live broadcast.[79]
  • 23 July: After murdering his ex-girlfriend and her sister, a Tallahassee, Florida man streamed his suicide on Facebook Live.[80]
  • August: An Oklahoma teenager was accidentally shot in the face by another teenager.[81]
  • 11 August: A Gradačac man shot and killed his ex-wife and two other people live on Instagram. He also wounded a police officer and two others before killing himself.[82]
  • 7 October: During the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas fighters livestreamed the attack through Facebook Live, sometimes from phones stolen from Israelis.[83][84]
  • 9 October: An 18-year-old Hebron man livestreamed on Facebook as he attempted to attack Israeli soldiers with a construction vehicle.[85]
  • 20 October: Two San Antonio teenagers accused of a fatal drive-by shooting livestreamed a car chase and their subsequent arrest on Instagram Live.[86]
  • 22 October: A San Antonio man shot at a dog during a livestream.[87]
  • 29 October: A shooting during Halloween festivities at Ybor City, a neighborhood in Tampa, which resulted in two dead was livestreamed on Instagram Live by victims.[88]
  • 5 November: A Calamba, Misamis Occidental radio host was shot and killed during a Facebook Live broadcast.[89]
  • 12 December: A group of friends in a Miami-Dade County rental were livestreaming when their house was shot at in a drive-by shooting, wounding a woman.[90]
  • 12 December: An Uber driver in Mexico was shot dead during a struggle while driving and streaming on TikTok.[91]
  • 15 December: 54-year-old Serhiy Batryn detonated three grenades during a meeting at Keretsky town hall, killing one and wounding 26. The meeting was being livestreamed at the time of the attack.[92][93]
  • 19 December: A Doncaster man stabbed and wounded a person on Facebook Live.[94]

2024

  • 2 January: A Waukesha, Wisconsin man engaged in a shootout with police on Facebook Live following a domestic violence call.[95]
  • 4 January: Student Dylan Butler livestreamed a mass shooting at his high school in Perry, Iowa, killing two people and injuring six others before committing suicide.[96]
  • 8 January: A San Rafael, California woman stabbed her mother to death on Facebook Live.[97]
  • 8 February: Indian politician Mauris Noronha shot and killed his rival Abhishek Ghosalkaron on Facebook Live before killing himself.[98]
  • 13 April: A man livestreamed himself as he fired several shots from a rifle while on the roof of a Marina del Rey, California apartment building.[99]
  • 9 May: A Korean YouTuber fatally stabbed another YouTuber on a livestream.[100]
  • 23 May: A Fort Wayne, Indiana man fired several shots at a random person inside a Kroger supermarket while on Facebook Live.[101]
  • 31 May: The 2024 Mannheim stabbing, in which an Islamic extremist stabbed a police officer to death and wounded five other people during an anti-Islam rally, was captured on a YouTube livestream.[102]
  • 7 June: As he disputed with homeless people in downtown Spokane, Washington, a livestreaming YouTuber shot and wounded a man. The YouTuber was sentenced to three years in prison.[103]
  • 26 June: 19-year-old Australian Jordan Patten livestreamed himself attempting to commit a mass stabbing in Newcastle, New South Wales, but eventually gave up. No one was injured.[104]
  • 12 August: 18-year-old Arda Küçükyetim livestreamed himself stabbing and injuring five people outside a mosque in Eskişehir, Turkey.[105]
  • 30 November: A 17-year-old student livestreamed a hammer attack on two classmates at a school in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.[106]

2025

  • 22 January: A 17-year-old student at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee live-streamed a shooting on Kick, killing one student and injuring another before killing himself.[107]
  • 29 January: Salwan Momika, a Swedish former Muslim and atheistic critic of Islam known for burning the Quran in public, was shot and killed on a TikTok live stream at his home in Södertälje.[108]
  • 2 March: Twitch streamers Valkyrae, Emiru, and Cinna were stalked by a man while livestreaming their visit to Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier.[109] After they denied giving him their phone numbers, he attempted to physically assault the women and verbally threatened to kill them.[110]
  • 11 March: 22-year-old Japanese female streamer Airi Sato was stabbed to death in Tokyo, Japan, while live-streaming herself walking through the streets on the WhoWatch livestreaming app. The woman suffered multiple stab wounds to her head, neck and abdomen. She was found unconscious at the scene and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The attacker, 42-year-old Kenji Takato, had calmly carried out the assault and was later apprehended at the scene by police officers.[111][112]
  • 19 April: A 42-year-old Greek man was shot and killed in Kallithea while streaming on Facebook Live.[113]

See also

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.