Facebook 'unlikes' live French cop killing

Facebook said Tuesday it was cooperating with French authorities probing the killing of a police commander and his partner in a live-streamed video on the leading social network.

"We are working closely with the French authorities as they deal with this terrible crime,’ Facebook said in a statement following Monday's fatal stabbing of 42-year-old police commander Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his 36-year-old partner Jessica Schneider in a town near Paris.

"Terrorists and acts of terrorism have no place on Facebook. Whenever terrorist content is reported to us, we remove it as quickly as possible. We treat takedown requests by law enforcement with the highest urgency."

The assailant, a known radical claiming allegiance to the Daesh (IS) group, was slain by police after the attack, but his video was posted on Facebook Live, a new feature that enables any user to stream a live event.

The incident posed a new challenge for Facebook and other social networks seeking to keep an open platform without allowing users to promote violence.

"We do understand and recognise that there are unique challenges when it comes to content and safety for Live videos,’ a Facebook spokeswoman said.

"It's a serious responsibility, and we work hard to strike the right balance between enabling expression while providing a safe and respectful experience. We're deeply committed to improving the effectiveness of how we handle reports of live content that violates our Community Standards."

Facebook, which has over 1.5 billion members worldwide, last year updated its so-called "community standards’ to make clear it does not want the platform used to incite attacks or violence.

Other social networks have made similar efforts, but monitoring and policing the feeds is a difficult task, and the platforms are often unable to prevent sensitive content from being posted.

The stabbings came on the heels of a gunman claiming to be acting in the name of IS shot dead 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida on Sunday in the worst mass shooting in US history.

Earlier Story:

A man claiming allegiance to Daesh killed a French policeman and his partner, investigators said Tuesday, in what authorities blasted as an "appalling terrorist act."

Two French officials say a man with a past terrorist conviction shot video during a lethal knife attack on two police officials.

One of the officials said the assailant posted the video on Facebook Live, the social media site's live feed. His account has been suspended.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

One official says that at one point during the attack, the assailant puzzled over what to do with the couple's 3-year-old child, who survived.

President Francois Hollande held a top-level security meeting after the overnight attack, which took place as France was on high alert for the Euro 2016 football championships.

Sources close to the investigation identified the suspect, who was killed in a dramatic police operation, as Larossi Abballa, 25.

They told AFP he had been previously sentenced for a role in a militant group with links to Pakistan.

He stabbed the policeman repeatedly outside his home in Magnanville, a northwestern suburb of Paris, before holing up inside with the policeman's partner and the couple's three-year-old son.

Loud detonations were heard at the scene as elite RAID police moved in following failed negotiations with the attacker.

Officers found the woman's body after they stormed the house, and her attacker was killed during the assault, interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.

The couple's toddler son was "in shock but unharmed," a prosecutor added, saying the boy was receiving medical attention.

The slain policeman was 42 years old and worked in nearby Les Mureaux. His partner was a local police official. Their identities have been withheld.

Militant links

Witnesses told investigators the man may have shouted 'God is greatest' as he stabbed the policeman.

Sources close to the inquiry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he claimed allegiance to Daesh while talking to officers.

The SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based monitor, cited the Daesh-linked Amaq News Agency as saying on its Telegram channels: "Daesh fighter kills deputy chief of the police station in the city of Les Mureaux and his wife with blade weapons near #Paris."

Abballa, the sources said, had been sentenced in 2013 to a three-year term, six months of which were suspended, for "criminal association with the aim of preparing terrorist acts," in a trial with seven other defendants.

Hollande met at the Elysee presidential palace early Tuesday with Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Interior Minister Cazeneuve and Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas.

In a statement earlier, Hollande said an "odious act" had been committed and vowed to shed all light on the murders.

The operation in Magnanville saw police move in quickly to evacuate residents from the neighbourhood and block off roads, an AFP journalist saw.

A helicopter was on the ground a few hundred metres (yards) away from the scene of the attack, along with fire trucks and ambulances.

RAID officers "arrived rapidly on the scene. Negotiations were launched and an assault plan was put in place," Brandet said.

But the negotiations were "unsuccessful" and authorities decided to launch an assault around midnight, he added.

The killing came after a gunman claiming to be acting in the name of Daesh shot dead 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida on Sunday in the worst mass shooting in US history.

The bloodshed also comes as France hosts the Euro 2016 football tournament under tight security.

The country is still reeling from militant attacks in Paris last November that left 130 people dead.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve blasted the killings as "an appalling terrorist act."

Cazeneuve said that since the start of 2016, more than a hundred people "representing a threat to public security" had been arrested.