Logging onto Facebook, you expect to find the day-to-day timeline of birthdays, anniversaries, baby pictures from people you knew from high school that you forgot you were still friends with smiling back at you from the screen. But what you don’t expect, and what no one should expect to see, is a video showing the brutal and senseless shooting murder of Robert Godwin Sr. at the hands of 37-year-old Steve Stephens, later dubbed the “Facebook Murderer” by news outlets.
The homicide and its subsequent video being broadcasted to millions on the platform lead to many questions like motive, why Godwin; but also, what does this mean for the new and twisted role social media plays in these violent crimes?