For more than a month, the family and the public have had no information from the institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) or the company “Meta”, which manages social networks, why the video of the murder of Nizama Hecimovic from Gradacac was available on Instagram for almost four hours, even though the consequences of watching it are serious and long-term.
On August 11th, Riad Sendic watched a video on the profile of Nermin Sulejmanovic, who lived with his cousin Nizama Hecimovic, hoping to convince mother that she had not been murdered.
“After I watched the video, I left the room and confirmed to my mother: ‘Yes, he killed her,'” recalls Sendic.
In addition to the murder of Nizama, with whom he had a minor daughter, Sulejmanovic announced live, and then killed two more people and wounded several of them in a small town on the slopes of Majevica.
The video was available for more than three hours, despite numerous reports of the recording and Sulejmanovic‘s profile by network users, and the search for him lasted for hours and ended only after he took his own life on an abandoned farm.
According to the procedures, if the algorithms do not remove the content themselves, any police officer can report the video to the company that runs Instagram, but only after receiving approval from the Prosecutor’s Office.
The “Meta” company expressed their condolences to the family and stated that they had removed the video and the others glorifying the perpetrator, but they did not agree to the journalist’s request for an interview. The request was rejected also by the Tuzla Canton (TC) Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Gradacac Police Directorate, with the explanation that the investigation is ongoing and that all data and findings are in the TC Prosecutor’s Office.
Inspector in the Department for Combating Computer Crime of the Federal Police Administration, Sasa Petrovic explained that the procedures for removing the video are clearly prescribed and said that all officers, after seeing the content, are obliged to inform the Prosecutor’s Office, which will make a decision on conducting an investigation and removal orders, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
