CAIRO: With drops of blood falling from his hands, a Syrian man appeared in a Facebook Live video soon after murdering his wife, according to newspapers reports.
The man, identified as Abu Marwan, is a Syrian refugee residing in Germany, who stabbed his wife to death on Friday and aired his confession in a live video on Facebook.
He claimed that he killed his wife because “she wanted to marry another Lebanese man after divorcing him,” German news reports have said.
Abu Marwan, 41, reportedly killed his wife, 37, by stabbing her at least five times in the neck, before escaping with his twelve-year-old son.
He then appeared in a Facebook Live stream, alongside his son, to justify why he stabbed his wife to death. The suspect was seen in the video holding a knife and bleeding due to a cut sustained in his hand.
German prosecutors in Karlsruhe issued an arrest warrant for the suspect and arrested him shortly after he escaped the crime scene.
The couple’s underage daughter reported the murder of her mother to the police at around 4:30 PM local time.
In the video, Abu Marwan said his act was “a message to all women who angered their husbands,” warning that “this is how you’ll end.” He also urged viewers to widely share the video.
The crime marks the latest incident in a long list of gruesome murders caught on Facebook’s Live streaming service. It had been previously used to broadcast the aftermath of crimes to millions around the world using the social network.
Last week, a North Carolina man was shot to death while streaming on Facebook Live shortly after he left a police station.
In another incident, the aftermath of the police shooting of Philando Castile in 2016 went viral after his fiancee appeared live on Facebook because she wanted to explain what had happened.
Syrian man confesses to killing his wife in Facebook Live video
Syrian man confesses to killing his wife in Facebook Live video
EU warns Meta it must open up WhatsApp to rival AI chatbots
- The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules
BRUSSELS: The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules.
The European Commission said a change in Meta’s terms had “effectively” barred third-party artificial intelligence assistants from connecting to customers via the messaging platform since January.
Competition chief Teresa Ribera said the EU was “considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta’s new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe.”
The EU executive, which is in charge of competition policy, sent Meta a warning known as a “statement of objections,” a formal step in antitrust probes.
Meta now has a chance to reply and defend itself. Monday’s step does not prejudge the outcome of the probe, the commission said.
The tech giant rejected the commission’s preliminary findings.
“The facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“There are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission’s logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots,” the spokesperson said.
Opened in December, the EU probe marks the latest attempt by the 27-nation bloc to rein in Big Tech, many of whom are based in the United States, in the face of strong pushback by the government of US President Donald Trump.
- Meta in the firing line -
The investigation covers the European Economic Area (EEA), made up of the bloc’s 27 states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — with the exception of Italy, which opened a separate investigation into Meta in July.
The commission said that Meta is “likely to be dominant” in the EEA for consumer messaging apps, notably through WhatsApp, and accused Meta of “abusing this dominant position by refusing access” to competitors.
“We cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage,” Ribera said in a statement.
There is no legal deadline for concluding an antitrust probe.
Meta is already under investigation under different laws in the European Union.
EU regulators are also investigating its platforms Facebook and Instagram over fears they are not doing enough to tackle the risk of social media addiction for children.
The company also appealed a 200-million-euro fine imposed last year by the commission under the online competition law, the Digital Markets Act.
That case focused on its policy asking users to choose between an ad-free subscription and a free, ad-supported service, and Brussels and Meta remain in discussions over finding an alternative that would address the EU’s concerns.
