SAN
JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg pledged
on Tuesday that his company would do all it could to prevent postings of
incidents such as Sunday's fatal shooting in Cleveland, which was visible on
the social media site for two hours.
Speaking
at Facebook's annual conference for software developers, Zuckerberg took time
out of a keynote address about an augmented reality project to express sympathy
to the friends and family of the shooting victim, Robert Godwin Sr.
The
suspected shooter, Steve Stephens, fatally shot himself after a brief pursuit
by Pennsylvania State Police officers on Tuesday, ending a two-day nationwide
manhunt, police said.
For
Facebook, the video of the shooting death was the latest in a series of
high-profile killings, assaults and other violent incidents to be shown either
live or after the fact on the world's largest social media network.
Facebook,
which makes money primarily by selling advertising that appears on people's
news feeds, relies largely on its 1.9 billion users to report posts that
violate its terms of service, and it employs thousands of workers to examine
those reports.
In
a statement on Monday, the company said the video of the shooting death
uploaded by Stephens had been online too long and that it was launching a
review of how objectionable material is reported and taken down.
Zuckerberg
told the audience of developers that another top priority for the company is
augmented reality, a technology that allows people with smartphones to immerse
themselves in a game, fantasy or other animated reality.
Augmented
reality hit the mainstream in the United States last July, when Niantic Inc
released its Pokemon Go mobile game, where players use phones to capture
animated characters that appear in real locations.
Facebook
plans to work with developers this year to come up with more augmented reality
games and other uses, Zuckerberg said. For example, he said people would use
the technology to leave a virtual note for a friend at a bar, or to find
virtual street art on a wall that in real life is blank.
"This
isn't just about finding a Pokemon in a one-block radius," Zuckerberg
said.
Eventually,
he said, people would use augmented reality on eyewear, although he did not
give any details about possible Facebook hardware.
In
2014, Facebook acquired its Oculus virtual reality goggles unit for $2 billion,
although that division is a long way from making a mass-market product or
contributing significantly to the company's earnings.
Facebook
announced immediate changes to its Messenger app, which has 1.2 billion people
on it. The company added a "discover" tab where people can chat with
companies or find nearby businesses.
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