Life Style

Before she was shot and killed by Baltimore County Police, 23-year-old Korryn Gaines documented parts of a 5 hour-long stand off on her social media accounts.

BCoPD confirmed in a statement on Monday that they worked with Facebook, which also owns Instagram, to deactivate both accounts.

“On-scene command staff filed a request with Facebook during the barricade to deactivate Gaines' Facebook and Instagram accounts in order to preserve the integrity of negotiations with her and for the safety of Gaines, her child and officers,” the statement reads.



Both profiles have now been restored, but almost all of the videos Gaines posted during that time have been removed.

Andrea Saul, a Facebook community representative, told For Harriet that the company will not remove content unless it violates the company’s community standards.

Law enforcement can submit an emergency request for anything that appears to be a “direct threat," but a request does not guarantee Facebook will act.

“We look at the context surrounding individual pieces of content to make a decision about whether or not they violate our standards,” said Saul.

Facebook specifies an emergency request is warranted in “a matter involving imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person and requiring disclosure of information without delay.”

These requests are monitored 24 hours a day to ensure prompt responses.

Though Saul did not confirm the extent to which Facebook worked with BCoPD here, citing privacy concerns, she said that some of the videos Gaines posted did allude to violence and therefore violated the community standards.

“In this case, there was the actual showing of a gun [and] talking about people being at the door,” Saul said.

At a press conference on Monday, Police Chief Jim Johnson said “Gaines was posting video of the operation as it unfolded.” The videos, however, were not generated with Facebook Live, Saul said. They were uploaded.

On Gaines’ reinstated Instagram profile, there remains only one video recorded during the negotiations. In it, she is heard speaking to her son. The caption reads, “My son is not a hostage. He wants to be here in his home with his mother.”

My son is not a hostage. He wants to be here in his home with his mother.

A video posted by RoyalKay💋 (@shesyourmajesty) on Aug 1, 2016 at 9:57am PDT

Photo: Instagram/Korryn Gaines