Facebook has addressed occurrences of murder and suicide reports on its platform.

In a statement released by the company, it said such content had no place on the platform.

“This is an appalling incident and our hearts go out to the family of the victims. There is absolutely no place for content of this kind on Facebook and it has now been removed,” the statement said.

The platform recently updated the tools and resources offered to people who might be thinking of suicide, as well as the support it offered to their concerned friends and family members, which included integrated suicide prevention tools to help people in real time on Facebook Live.

“If someone posts something on Facebook that makes you feel about their well-being, you can reach out to them directly or report the post to Facebook. The company has teams working around the world, 24/7, who review reports that come in and prioritise the most serious reports like suicide,” the statement said.

It also said, “Facebook provides people who have expressed suicidal thoughts with a number of support options. For example, it prompts people to reach out to a friend and even offer pre-populated text to make it easier for people to start a conversation. Facebook also suggests contacting a helpline and offers other tips and resources for people to help themselves in that moment.

“Suicide prevention tools have been available on Facebook for more than 10 years and were developed in collaboration with mental health organisations such as Save.org, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Forefront and Crisis Text Line, and with input from people who have personal experience thinking about or attempting suicide.

“In 2016, Facebook expanded the availability of the latest tools globally – with the help of over 70 partners around the world – and improved how they work based on new technology and feedback from the community.”

The company said it was also aware of at least four recent instances in which friends that saw the streams and alerted authorities interrupted attempted suicides streamed on live.

In addition to improving Facebook’s reporting flows, the company said it was constantly exploring ways that new technologies could help make sure that Facebook was a safe environment.

“Artificial Intelligence, for example, plays an important part in this work, helping Facebook prevent the videos from being re-shared in their entirety. The company is also working on improving its review processes,” the company said.