Facebook on the frontline: livestreaming Iraqi and Kurdish forces trying to wrestle Mosul from ISIS
When Facebook Live launched as a service available to everyone (after a celebrity-only debut) it didn’t take long for people's fears of terrible incidents being broadcast to come true. We've had celebrities livestreaming, we've had death, injuries and accidents livestreamed. What next? War.
Over in Iraq, the city of Mosul is currently under the control of ISIS. Iraqi and Kurdish military forces are in the process of attacking the city to regain control. What's unusual -- and particularly disturbing -- about this is that the whole event is being livestreamed on Facebook by Kurdish media group Rudaw -- complete with viewers' reactions in the form of cartoon emoji.
Major news outlets such as Channel 4 and Al Jazeera are sharing Rudaw's footage, resulting in hundreds of thousands of viewers around the world. Most of us have seen more than our fair share of wartime footage, but this is the first time events have been allowed to unfold live, online without interruption. The whole thing is just a little surreal, and the addition of the floating reaction emoji does nothing to detract from this.
There are plenty of sad of angry faces floating by, presumably voicing disappointment at yet another act of war. There are a number of thumbs up floating by as viewers, one assumes, give their seal of approval to attempts to wrestle control from ISIS. There are also the occasional Love or Haha icons thrown into the mix. Have we become so desensitized to war that its now deemed funny or 'loveable'?
But what the live feed does, if nothing else, is bring home the human factor of conflict. As soldiers wander in and out of shot, they can be heard chatting, sneezing and coughing. Artillery fire can be heard, as can the thuds of mortars. "Jesus is useless here," comments one viewer.
What the streams do not convey -- for all their Gears of War gloss -- is what is going on inside Mosul itself. There are around a million civilians still inside the city, including up to half a million children. No floating emoji will protect them from raining rockets nor portray the real horrors that will almost certainly be felt by both sides.
This may be something of a first for Facebook, a first for warfare, and a first for the media, but as one commenter says on the Al Jazeera page:
It's crazy to me that in this day and age we can watch warfare live from the casual vantage point of FB live. I wonder if this is normal or should be normal?
Another says:
People killing people and the world is made to watch. Shame.