Over the weekend, Twitter users successfully uploaded a video of the 2019
Christchurch shootings to the platform. The video, which was livestreamed by
Brenton Tarrant who attacked two mosques and killed 51 Muslim worshippers, was
only removed after being reported to the company by the government of New
Zealand.





<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>



Tech & Terrorism: Christchurch Livestream Video Found On Twitter



(New York, N.Y.) — Over the weekend, Twitter users successfully uploaded
<[link removed]>
a video of the 2019 Christchurch shootings to the platform. The video, which
was livestreamed byBrenton Tarrant
<[link removed]>
who attacked two mosques and killed 51 Muslim worshippers, was only removed
after being reported to the company by the government of New Zealand. Twitter’s
terms of servicestate
<[link removed]>
that the company prohibits content that “promote[s] terrorism or violent
extremism,” and CEO Elon Musk haspledged
<[link removed]>
that users would be suspended for posting content that is illegal or an
“incitement to violence.”



Following the Christchurch attack, major tech companies, including Twitter,
signed theChristchurch Call to Action
<[link removed]>
, a nine-point action plan aimed at fighting terrorism and violent extremism
online. The nine action pointsincluded
<[link removed]>
a pledge to invest in new technologies to improve terrorist content detection
and removal, a commitment to implementing live streaming checks to reduce risks
of disseminating terrorist content, and, among other things, a promise to
improve sharing technological developments between large and small companies.



Although content moderation is at the forefront of many policy conversations,
the content in question here—a video from a terrorist attack—should be treated
as something that must unassailably be removed, much as child sexual abuse
material (CSAM) or drug trafficking content, because it continues to inspire
further violence. The shooter in the May 2022 Buffalo Attack, for example,viewed

<[link removed]>
a clip of the Christchurch shooting on 4chan and credited the attack as his
inspiration in his online manifesto.



Unfortunately, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) continues to find the
Christchurch video, clips of the video and support for the attack on a variety
of platforms that signed the Christchurch Call to Action and other online
sites. Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Christchurch attack in 2020,
CEP researchersfound
<[link removed]>
the attack video on 17 online locations. Separately in August 2022, CEPlocated
<[link removed]>
three Twitter accounts that glorified the terrorist attack and combined had
nearly 2,000 followers. One of these accounts remained on Twitter for almost
four months.



###





Unsubscribe
<[link removed]>