Channel 4 slammed for streaming Mosul siege on Facebook Live and inviting viewers to react with EMOJIS

CHANNEL 4 has been forced to defend itself after being slammed for streaming the battle for Mosul live on Facebook.

The broadcaster’s coverage was viewed more than 529,000 times when it was put out at around lunchtime yesterday.

And the channel was just one of several news outlets to use Facebook Live to transmit pictures from the conflict in Iraq to an online audience as they happened.

Al Jazeera and Kurdish news agency Rudaw also used the social media feature to broadcast the violence – with Al Jazeera’s coverage gaining a whopping 892,000 views.

But the move was slammed by some who said it seemed like a real-life war was being used as entertainment.

In particular, the ability of viewers to react to what they were seeing by posting emojis which popped up on the screen came in for heavy criticism.

Screen grabs showed images of tanks rolling across the desert and plumes of smoke rising from explosions covered in smiley faces and ‘thumbs-up’ icons.

Many were uncomfortable with the idea, branding it “surreal” and “dystopian” in comments on social media.

Ben Collins wrote: “Battle of Mosul streaming live on Facebook. Technology: 1, Humanity: 0”

Lisa Fleischer tweeted: “Watching the battle for Mosul, livestreamed on Facebook, with emojis flowing across the screen... surreal”

And one post by Sunday Times journalist Harriet Salemwas was retweeted 3,730 times.

It read: “The 21st century. A place where we live stream war while Facebook prompts us to 'react' with an emoticon.”

Jon Laurence, digital editor of Channel 4 News, told : “On live streaming the Mosul footage, we wanted to bring the one of the most significant stories of our time to our viewers as it happened.