Philly DA calls on Facebook’s Zuckerberg to take down threatening posts

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is publicly calling on Facebook to remove photos he says threaten the safety of a cooperating witness.

A Philadelphia woman agreed to testify against drug dealers for whom she purchased guns.

Williams says Freddie Henriquez posted her statement to police on his Facebook page along with other postings about killing “rats.”

The DA’s office has asked Facebook to take down the posts, but the company said the images do not violate its policies. Williams held a news conference Monday to display the offending images and throw some weight behind his request.

Late Monday afternoon, an office spokeswoman said some of the postings on Henriquez’s Facebook page had been taken down. Henriquez recently posted $25,000 in order to secure his release from jail and the office believes someone other than Facebook removed the postings this afternoon after media outlets started reporting this story.

There is no information to suggest that Facebook security took down the postings, according to spokeswoman Tasha Jamerson. And there are still images of Henriquez and his friend David Ruiz calling for all “rats” to be killed “point blank period.”

Williams continues to call directly on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to take down the threatening posts.

“When law enforcement, the police, district attorneys call you for help, help us,” Williams said in an appeal to Zuckerberg.

Williams has charged the man who posted the photos and another suspected drug dealer with witness intimidation.

In a comment, a Facebook spokesman did not address the specific accusations but said that, “Facebook works with law enforcement to the extent required by law and where appropriate to ensure the safety of Facebook users. We work very hard to be a good partner to law enforcement and any assertion to the contrary is false.”