Facebook Live was a rushed project that has caused headaches for the company ever since, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg decided to prioritize the video product after a February 2016 meeting, according to the WSJ. A product executive told him that 70 percent of live video trial users were college or high school-aged with a large portion African-American teenagers, groups that had been moving away from the platform towards competitors like Snapchat.
As a result, Zuckerberg decided to put more than 100 employees under "lockdown" for two months in order to roll out Facebook Live to everyone, sources told the paper.
Facebook Live was launched to some high-profile users beginning in August 2015. The company did a wider roll out to iPhone users and Android users worldwide in the following months. By April 2016, everyone had the ability to go Live.
However, the platform is dealing with issues, especially livestreamed violence. There have been at least 50 incidents of crime broadcast through the video service, according to the Wall Street Journal. Facebook has also been under fire for removing controversial videos, although the platform has said some of the actions were due to technical glitches rather than editorial decisions.
Advertisers told CNBC in January they were still skeptical about Facebook's video products. For Facebook Live in particular, companies are concerned over the context in which their ads will appear. Facebook is also dealing with measurement controversies, including admitting to accidentally overestimating the average viewing time on its video ads. The company agreed to an external audit of its metrics in early February.
To read the WSJ report, click here.