The response to the deadly mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand – The Verge

Facebook is ‘exploring restrictions’ for live video after Christchurch attack

2019-03-30T12:33:08-04:00

Earlier today, the New Zealand Herald published a letter from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, addressing how the company is addressing the deadly terror attack in Christchurch two weeks ago. In the letter, she lays out three steps that the company is taking, including that it's "exploring restrictions" for live video.

She described the attack as "an act of pure evil," and that the company is "committed to reviewing what happened," and that it's working with the country's authorities. In the aftermath of the attack, Facebook says that it removed 1.5 million videos of the attack around the world, with 1.2 blocked "at upload." In her letter, San …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Facebook moves to ban white nationalist and separatist content on its platform

2019-03-27T13:28:08-04:00

In a dramatic shift in policy, Facebook announced today that it is banning white nationalism and separatism on its platform. The decision, which was first reported by Motherboard, comes just under two weeks since a white supremacist killed 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand.

In a blog post, Facebook said that any "praise, support, and representation of white nationalism and separatism" would be banned when the new policy goes into effect next week. "It's clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services," the blog read.

Facebook has prohibited white supremacist content for a while no …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Tech platforms should fight Islamophobia the way they fought ISIS

2019-03-21T06:00:00-04:00

Mourners attend the funeral of a victim of the Christchurch terrorist attack at Memorial Park Cemetery on March 20th in Christchurch, New Zealand. | Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images

After last week's horrific terrorist attack in New Zealand, early commentary focused on how the shootings at two Christchurch shootings seemed to be purpose-built for spreading on social media. "A mass shooting of, and for, the internet," Kevin Roose called it in the New York Times:

The details that have emerged about the Christchurch shooting - at least 49 were killed in an attack on two mosques - are horrifying. But a surprising thing about it is how unmistakably online the violence was, and how aware the shooter on the videostream appears to have been about how his act would be viewed and interpreted by distinct internet subcultures.

In …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Facebook says the Christchurch attack live stream was viewed by fewer than 200 people

2019-03-19T06:04:37-04:00

Facebook says footage of the Christchurch shooting was viewed just 200 times during its live broadcast, and 4,000 times in total before it was removed. The company also says it didn't receive any reports from users about the shooting live stream until 12 minutes after the video had ended.

Over the 24 hours following the initial broadcast, individuals attempted to re-upload the video 1.5 million times. The disparity highlights the specific challenges facing the social network, especially when an attack like Christchurch was made to go viral. Videos of the attack were cross-posted across various social networks, and links to the live stream a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

New Zealand ISPs are blocking sites that do not remove Christchurch shooting video

2019-03-18T16:01:57-04:00

Following the Christchurch shooting last week, internet service providers in New Zealand are blocking access to websites that do not respond or refuse to comply to requests to remove reuploads of the shooter's original live stream.

According to Bleeping Computer, sites like 4chan, 8chan, LiveLeak, and the file-sharing site Mega have all been pulled by ISPs like Vodafone, Spark, and Vocus. The ISPs appear to be blocking access at the DNS level to sites that do not respond to the takedown requests, but it's unclear how effective the blocks will be. Like most web-level blocks, the restrictions are easy to circumvent through the use of a VPN or …

Read the full story at The Verge.

YouTube took down an ‘unprecedented volume’ of videos after New Zealand shooting

2019-03-18T10:18:31-04:00

YouTube dealt with an "unprecedented volume" of videos after last week's mass shooting in New Zealand, as the platform struggled to remove videos with the footage, YouTube's chief product officer told The Washington Post.

Friday's killings at two mosques in Christchurch were recorded and posted to social media channels around the world as part of a plan that was seemingly designed to spread the footage online. As the footage made its way around the internet, it was reuploaded repeatedly. Yesterday, Facebook said it removed 1.5 million videos of the attack in the first 24 hours after the shooting.

Videos were altered to evade detection

While …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Facebook says that it removed 1.5 million videos of the New Zealand mass shooting

2019-03-17T09:46:06-04:00

In the first 24 hours after the deadly mass shooting in New Zealand, Facebook says that it has removed 1.5 million videos that were uploaded of the attack, of which 1.2 million "at upload."

The company made the announcement in a Tweet, following up on a prior announcement that it had been alerted by authorities and removed the alleged shooter's Facebook and Instagram accounts. Facebook spokeswoman Mia Garlick says that the company is also "removing all edited versions of the video that do not show graphic content."

In the first 24 hours we removed 1.5 million videos of the attack globally, of which over 1.2 million were blocked at upload…
- …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Valve takes down user tributes memorializing the New Zealand shooting suspect

2019-03-16T17:23:45-04:00

Valve removed more than 100 tributes to the alleged white supremacist responsible for the mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand from Steam profiles, says Kotaku. In the days after the attack, it found that numerous users updated their profiles to include the name or image of the shooter, and in one case, a GIF of the attack.

Kotaku says that it initially saw 66 profiles that paid tribute to the shooter in the aftermath of the attack, which claimed 50 lives. The number of tributes later surpassed 100. After contacting Valve for comment, the tributes were removed, although users were continuing to praise the shooter. Kotaku a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Sky New Zealand yanks Sky Australia after Christchurch footage sparks outrage

2019-03-16T00:27:07-04:00

When news broke of the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand that left at least 49 dead Thursday evening, I started watching Twitter. Two surprising themes stood out: people urging their social media followers to protect themselves from accidentally watching an extremely graphic 17-minute video of the attack - and separately, New Zealand and Australian locals condemning local channel Sky News Australia from intentionally sharing parts of that same footage with their viewers.

"We stand in support of our fellow New Zealanders"

Now, broadcaster Sky New Zealand has taken the drastic step of removing Sky News Australia from their broadcasts …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Questions about policing online hate are much bigger than Facebook and YouTube

2019-03-15T19:43:56-04:00

In the wake of a hate-fueled mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, major web platforms have scrambled to take down a 17-minute video of the attack. Sites like YouTube have applied imperfect technical solutions, trying to draw a line between newsworthy and unacceptable uses of the footage.

But Facebook, Google, and Twitter aren't the only places weighing how to handle violent extremism. And traditional moderation doesn't affect the smaller sites where people are still either promoting the video or praising the shooter. In some ways, these sites pose a tougher problem - and their fate cuts much closer to fundamental questions about how …

Read the full story at The Verge.