Father criticised for streaming child's birth on Facebook Live
His partner only found out it was being broadcast to the internet after the event
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A father has been criticised for live-streaming his child’s birth on Facebook without the knowledge of his partner.
Californian Fakamalo Kihe Eiki captured the intimate moments on the Facebook live function, in a video that has been viewed nearly 200,000 times.
His partner, Sarah Dome, was not aware the recording was going out onto the internet for the world to see, but said later it was “pretty cool”.
"I wanted our baby to remember it,” Mr Eiki told CBC News. “It's something for him to remember when he grows up."
He added: "There is nothing to hide about having a kid, it's a blessing and just to share it with people, I think it's just an amazing thing."
Ms Dome agreed: "It is a beautiful thing, nothing to be ashamed of. And it [the video] didn't show too much so I'm OK," she told the broadcaster, adding she didn’t know the recording – which was shared over 400 times - was being live streamed. “I'm really shocked that so many people seen the video … my baby's a star.”
However, there were others who were not so enthusiastic.
“The internet has been hard at work making profound video content like watermelon crushing and newspaper eating,” wrote journalist Renata Sellitti in Esquire magazine. “But it's fair to say we've officially hit max web oversharing mode and should slowly back away from the ledge….It's still crossing the line to show footage of her knees up around her head to the Facebook world at large.”
Other internet users appeared to agree:
Despite the lack of informed consent to the recording, many other social media users were supportive of the video.
“Man she is strong!” said Ofa Fatafehi in a comment to the video. Lini N Neyo Pome'e said: “You can do it, push!”
“Mazel Tov to mom, dad and all family and friends!” commented Matthew Rappaport. “Thanks for sharing this to the world!”
There have been other occasions where social media has been used by people close to a birth to record events. In 2014, a Twitter employee, Claire Díaz-Ortiz, used the platform to live tweet the birth of her daughter.
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