Social networking behemoth Facebook is witnessing some ambiguous usage of its Live video format, and is coming forward with a step to ban it. The company has added a new section i its Live API Facebook Platform Policy which reads:
Don’t use the API to publish only images (ex: don’t publish static, animated, or looping images), or to live-stream polls associated with unmoving or ambient broadcasts.
Videos which are not in accordance with the policy may suffer reduced visibility on the platform, while the publishers which keep on violating the norms on a regular basis may completely be restrained from accessing Live.
We have often come across live videos, which were not actually live, but some simple polls or countdowns running on a static background. When Facebook asked for user’s feedback on the issue, it learnt that users do not find such static images or polls as an engaging or interesting live content. Back in December, the company banned the graphics-only Live videos which asked for users reactions as votes on any subject.
And too, it is moving further ahead in removing such obscurities from its Live format.
It is the unpredictability, urgency and excitement about what would happen next on screen which attracts people towards live videos. If such fake videos become prominent on the platform, people may lose their connection with the live streaming, and watch lesser Live videos, which is not good for Facebook.
While speaking with TechCrunch on the subject of videos like the New Year’s countdown, Facebook tells that any countdown of a real world happening which does not loop is allowed on the platform. But if its publishers continue to get negative feedback, there reach will be confined. Facebook says that it will continue to monitor this trend.
Facebook has invested a huge amount of effort in the areas of engineering and marketing to materialize the prospect of going live. Therefore, it is sort of a compulsion for the platform to maintain the decorum of its service, so that people may continue posting live contents on Facebook more frequently.
