The Helen Clark Foundation, which is an independent public policy think tank, built on the Christchurch Call with what they coined The Christchurch Principles - ten principles which act as a role and responsibility framework for tech companies, states and society as a whole to respect human rights and enable those rights to flourish online. Off the back of this horrific crime, the government introduced the Christchurch Call, which is - and I quote from the Christchurch Calls' website - ‘a commitment by Governments and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.’ Why was this video allowed to stream live for so long? What are the moderation policies? How can we prevent this from happening again? For any sentient human being, many urgent questions were raised. In fact, with the way these platforms are built, the algorithms can even favour this type of content.

The video was viewed over 4,000 times before it was removed, and what became painfully clear is that our online spaces do not operate in a framework that keeps us safe from the amplification of content like this, which deliberately intend to incite hate, fear, intolerance and violence. This terrorist attack was different to others that have occurred before, in that the gunman planned and chose to live-stream this attack through Facebook. Since March 15th 2019, what’s now known as New Zealand’s darkest day, some citizens have grappled with the idea that perhaps our country is not as accepting, welcoming and kind as they might like to imagine - others have wondered with frustration and urgency about how we can dismantle the systems that listen to and respect some voices over others. Our hearts still ache for those who were most personally affected by this abhorrent crime. On March 15th, 2019, our social media landscape and our real world became horrifyingly intertwined after a gunman entered two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and committed an act of terror.įifty-one people lost their lives in the attacks. Dr David Hall is a Political Theorist and lecturer at AUT University ~

A Careful Revolution by David Hall