We know that the tragic incident of the terror attack on the Mosque in New Zealand was streamed live on Facebook. In case you are unaware of it, click here to view details.
The Christchurch massacre was viewed live by 200 social media users. Later the video went viral and was viewed more than 4000 times. Finally, it was deemed inappropriate by the authorities and it has been removed from Facebook.
This, however, has raised many questions over the content being displayed on
the most favorite sites: the Facebook, Google, and
Twitter. Can people post whatever content
they like to? Aren’t there any checks over the content that is being posted? How
can a site allow one to post such extremist content?
Thereby, not only New Zealand but also different governments, business leaders and activists have called on Facebook, Google and Twitter take considerable steps for making sure that extremist content in not being promoted through them.
Vodafone takes action against the three social media giants
New Zealand: Vodafone and two other telecom operators who are dominantly providing internet services across the country have called upon Mark Zuckerberg (CEO Facebook), Jack Dorsey (CEO Twitter) and Sundar Pichai (CEO Google) to urgently decide upon how to get rid of harmful content from their sites.
A letter has already been written
to the three sites by the New Zealand Telecom Industry. Also, the three sites have faced a lot of criticism since the
terror attack took place and took lives of 50 innocents.
The CEOs of Vodafone New Zealand,
have urged that step need to be taken to track down the terror-related content
and get rid of it within a specific period of time or face fines elsewise.
In their open letter, which is available
at their official site, they said:
“Although we recognize the speed with which social network companies sought to remove Friday’s video once they were made aware of it, this was still a response to material that was rapidly spreading globally and should never have been made available online.”
The reaction of New Zealand’s PM:
PM Jacinda Ardern, who has been
seen concerned about the Mosque attack, has now remarked that her government
will be looking into the role that social media has played in the terrorist attack.
In her statement, she said that they are
not to sit back and accept the existence of these platforms irrespective of
their responsibilities. These platforms are existing and are have a
responsibility on their shoulders.
In her speech at the parliament,
she said
“They are the publisher. Not just the postman, there cannot be a case of all profit no responsibility.”
Is the video still available?
Unfortunately, yes! You might as
well end up searching the video and finding it on certain sites!
However, the four social media
giants have given out statements of clarifications.
Youtube released a statement saying that it has already terminated more than hundreds of accounts that have been posting the video or appreciating the shooter.
Google said that the volume of such a video has been exceptional in speed and scale.
Facebook has revealed that the first report of the video came 29 minutes after the video started and it was viewed less than 200 times by then!
Twitter has not provided any details yet.
