“Extremists will always look for ways to utilise communications tools to spread hateful ideologies and violence,” she said. She said the attacks were shown live on Facebook for 17 minutes before being stopped. The shootings in New Zealand show how the services they offer can be exploited by extremist groups, said Lucinda Creighton, senior advisor to the Counter Extremism Project. The user did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.įacebook, Twitter, Alphabet Inc and other social media companies have previously acknowledged the challenges they face policing content on their platforms. In another case, the video was shared by a verified Instagram user in Indonesia with more than 1.6 million followers. In a 15-minute window, Reuters found five copies of the footage on YouTube uploaded under the search term “New Zealand” and tagged with categories including “education” and “people & blogs”.

Facebook did not immediately respond to additional questions. Twitter and Google said they were working to stop the footage being reshared. Facebook said it had deleted the gunman’s accounts “shortly after the livestream commenced” after being alerted by police.īut Reuters found videos of the shooting on all five platforms up to 10 hours after the attacks, which began at 1345 local time in the city of Christchurch. The live footage of Friday’s attacks, New Zealand’s worst-ever mass shooting, was first posted to Facebook and has since been shared on Twitter, Alphabet Inc’s YouTube and Facebook-owned Whatsapp and Instagram.įacebook, Twitter and YouTube all said they had taken steps to remove copies of the videos.

Christchurch shooting video watch