A rape is broadcast in Sweden, putting scrutiny on role of Facebook Live

It was broadcast, live, to thousands of viewers: three men in an apartment, raping a young woman. The men could be heard saying, “You have been raped” and “Three against one,” according to Swedish newspaper Expressen.

The Facebook Live video was uploaded to a closed group of thousands of users on Sunday. Soon after, police began receiving calls from disturbed viewers, the paper reported. One woman told reporters that a man in the video “pulled off her clothes and lay on top of her”. According to BuzzFeed, the witness said she also saw one of the men pull out a gun and point it toward the camera, taunting viewers to “Come here, then.”

Others told reporters that the men in the video held the victim at gunpoint and forced her to say that she hadn’t been attacked. Linda Johansson told Swedish Television News that one of the men “was putting the words in her mouth,” and that he “was very derisive and laughed throughout.”

As the police heard the reports, they asked that anyone who had seen the video make images available to law enforcement. According to Swedish Television News, hundreds likely saw the video, and images of the rape suspects were shared widely on social media.

On Monday, police arrested three men, ages 18, 20 and 24, in Uppsala, Sweden.

Christine Chen, a Facebook spokeswoman, told The New York Times that, “this is a hideous crime and we do not tolerate this kind of content on Facebook.” She added that, “if someone does violate our community standards while using Live, we want to interrupt these streams as quickly as possible when they’re reported to us. So we’ve given people a way to report violations during a live broadcast.”