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. Livestreaming crime allows anyone from the public to become a distant witness.
"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.
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. 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". 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".
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.
Types Cybercrimes
Cybersex trafficking, also referred to as live streaming sexual abuse, involves sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual abuse or rape. Victims are abducted, threatened, or deceived and transferred to "cybersex dens". The dens can be in any location where the cybersex traffickers have a computer, tablet, or phone with Internet connection. Perpetrators use social media networks, videoconferencing, pornographic video sharing websites, dating pages, chat rooms, apps, dark web sites, and other online platforms. Online payment systems and cryptocurrencies are often used for anonymity. Millions of reports of cybersex trafficking are sent to authorities annually. Local authorities in Cambodia have expressed concern that new laws and police procedures are necessary to combat this type of cybercrime.
War crimes
A war crime is the act of breaking the laws of war. Through combination of the fact that war crime data suffers from considerable underreporting, general technological innovation which has made video recording and streaming easier, and coincidental occurrence of the Arab Spring and Russo-Ukrainian war, there have been more instances of people or groups live-streaming such acts to instill fear into the public. Content is most commonly disseminated through social media, with examples including the Terrorgram phenomena, White jihad, and the Islamic State's media wing Al-Hayat Media Center.
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.
2015 12 July: Two West Weber, Utah teenagers were arrested after filming themselves stealing ice cream from a truck while livestreaming on Periscope.
2016 14 June: 27-year-old Antonio Perkins was fatally shot while streaming on Facebook Live in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood. 1 August: Korryn Gaines of Randallstown, Maryland livestreamed her actions on Facebook and Instagram as she resisted arrest and started an armed standoff with the police, which ended with Gaines being fatally shot and her five-year-old son sustaining injuries to his face and arm after being hit by stray bullets. August 4, 2016. August 5, 2016. 8 November: A Jackson, Michigan man livestreamed himself breaking into a home and shooting a woman on Facebook Live. 14 November: Two 15-year-old teenagers Denis Muravyov and Katerina Vlasova from Pskov, Russia, barricaded themselves in a private house in Strugi Krasnye in the afternoon, broadcast live on Periscope and opened fire on police officers before dying of suicide.
2017 1 January: A Reynoldsburg, Ohio woman livestreamed herself taping her toddler to a wall on Facebook Live. She later uploaded a video taunting viewers who had called child protective services on her. 3 January: A torture incident in Chicago, in which an 18-year-old intellectually disabled male was filmed being physically and verbally abused by four individuals (two men and two women), was livestreamed by one of the women on Facebook and sparked massive controversy. 21 January: In Uppsala, Sweden, two Afghan immigrants and one Swedish citizen livestreamed the gang rape of a woman on Facebook. 10 April: A Los Angeles man shot at passing cars and police officers while livestreaming on Facebook Live. 24 April: A Phuket man livestreamed himself killing his newborn daughter on Facebook. He soon after committed suicide.
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. 4 April: A Detroit teenager accidentally shot his friend while playing with a gun on Instagram Live. 26 August: David Katz shot 12 people during a video game tournament, killing two. The shooting was livestreamed by the event's Twitch stream. 10 December: An Australian man struck his girlfriend after a livestreamed altercation that ensued while the man was playing Fortnite. The man pleaded guilty to assault.
2019 15 March: Two mass shootings occurred at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, where 51 people were killed and 40 were injured by 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant from Australia. The first attack was livestreamed by the shooter on Facebook Live for 17 minutes; they were described by then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as "one of the darkest days in New Zealand history". Following the shootings, Facebook announced restrictions on Facebook Live on those who posted violent extremist material. 22 March: Vlad Cristian Eremia, 26, stabbed a 77-year-old Catholic priest, Father Claude Grou, in Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; the attack was captured on a livestream by Salt + Light Television. 9 October: Stephan Balliet committed a shooting near a synagogue and kebab restaurant in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, resulting in two dead and two others injured; the attack was livestreamed on Twitch. 29 December: Keith Thomas Kinnunen opened fire at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, US, fatally shooting two people before he was shot and killed by an armed member of the congregation. The shooting was livestreamed on YouTube because the church livestreamed its services.
2020 8 February: Thai Army Sergeant Jakrapanth Thomma killed 29 and wounded 57 people in a mass shooting in Thailand. A portion of the shooting at the Terminal 21 Korat mall was livestreamed by the perpetrator on Facebook Live. 20 May: Armando "Junior" Hernandez, a 20-year-old livestreamed his attack at the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale, Arizona, US where three people were wounded, on Snapchat. 26 May: A man in Stamford, Connecticut livestreamed himself on Instagram on a highway overpass saying he thought people were following him. He then began to fire on passing vehicles on the road below. 15 July: A Tallahassee, Florida teen was murdered while livestreaming on Instagram in a church parking lot. 8 November: A Las Vegas man killed his girlfriend at her home while live on Facebook. Shortly before the livestream, the man also killed the woman's grandfather.
2021 6 January: Far-right personality Anthime Gionet, better known as "Baked Alaska", took part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol and livestreamed the event on DLive. 22 March: Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa, age 21, shot and killed ten people in a mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado, US. A portion of the shooting at a King Soopers supermarket was livestreamed on YouTube by a bystander. 10 April: A Singapore student abroad in London was attacked with a knife during a robbery streamed by a bystander on YouTube. 29 April: A Prichard, Alabama man livestreamed himself abusing his wife on Facebook Live. 7 June: A Rochester, New York woman threatened to shoot a man and a woman over the course of four livestreams done on Facebook Live. 8 July: Hawthorne, California Rapper Zerali Dijon Rivera, age 21, also known as Indian Red Boy, was shot and killed while on Instagram Live. 19 August: 15-year-old boy named H. J. livestreamed himself via Twitch stabbing a faculty member at his secondary school in Eslöv, Sweden. The attacker used a head-mounted camera on a helmet to livestream the attack and wore body armour similar to Brenton Tarrant, whom he had quoted in his manifesto. 20 August: 19-year-old Aidan Ingalls shot a man to death and critically injured his wife on the South Haven Pier before turning the gun on himself halfway down. The entire shooting lasted around a minute and was captured on WWMT's beach camera, which was being livestreamed on YouTube. 25 September: After threatening to kill somebody on a separate video, a 27-year-old Orlando, Florida man placed his phone against a trash can and livestreamed himself on Facebook attacking two police officers with a brick. 23 October: In 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, 21-year-old Bouchra killed her half-sister Anouk using a knife and livestreamed it via Instagram. The 2026 documentary De Instagram Moord by John van den Heuvel is about this murder.
2022 15 January: Malik Faisal Akram took multiple people hostage at Congregation Beth Israel, a Jewish synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, United States. A portion of the hostage-taking was livestreamed on the synagogue's Facebook account. 18 April: A Baton Rouge, Louisiana man fatally stabbed a woman while she was on Facebook Live. 14 May: Payton S. Gendron killed 10 people and injured three others while livestreaming the shooting on Twitch, inside and in the parking lot of the Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, US. 11 of the 13 people shot were black. 15 June: A West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana reserve deputy filmed himself on Facebook firing at a fleeing vehicle as he and a full-time deputy investigated a vehicle theft. The reserve deputy was fired and later charged with illegal discharge of a weapon. 28 June: An Ypsilanti, Michigan man was shot and killed on Facebook Live due to a purported argument. 24 July: Brooklyn-based pastor Lamor Whitehead and his wife were robbed of more than $1,000,000 worth of jewelry during a livestreamed church service. 7 September: During a shooting spree in Memphis, Tennessee, Ezekiel Kelly, a 19-year-old man, livestreamed himself on Facebook Live entering an AutoZone store and critically wounding an employee. 4 December: A food blogger and influencer named Gan Soujiong, also known as "Fatty Goes To Africa" online, was attacked and stabbed to death while livestreaming by Feng Zhengyung, allegedly a rival influencer in the Indra Chowk market in Kathmandu, Nepal. 22 December: A Handsworth, West Midlands man stabbed three people, killing one, in a "drink and drug-fuelled rampage" on Facebook Live.
2023 25 March: A Columbus, Mississippi woman fatally shot a man in a domestic violence incident on Facebook Live.