Mark Zuckerberg Blows Facebook Live Demo With Hasty Exit

The social network wanted to tout new live streaming features, but its CEO fled off camera little less than a minute in

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
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Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to check out Facebook Live — just maybe wait until he’s figured out how it works.

The social network is making a big to-do Wednesday over its streaming product, having revamped its app to give live video more prominence. It also added a bunch of new features like doodles, filters and searches.

To celebrate, Facebook lined up of parade of streams by high-profile figures, including one by its own CEO, Zuckerberg.

But less than a minute into his Facebook Live broadcast, Zuckerberg said, “Can you hold on one sec?” and then disappeared off screen, leaving the camera pointed at an empty gray couch before the video stopped dead.

The borked stream remained on Zuckerberg’s page for about half an hour. Viewers who kept trying to watch were treated to repeat viewings his abrupt exit, followed by a spinning buffer circle.

Zuckerberg launched a new live stream about an hour later, while traces of the first video disappeared from his page. But not before the botched attempt hit at least 393,000 views.

A Facebook spokesperson said Zuckerberg changed his mind during the first video and wanted to stream instead from the room where the Facebook Live product team was holed up.

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