Christchurch mosque shooting: Social media firms including Facebook face ‘questions to be answered’
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Bill Shorten have condemned social media giants in the wake of the Christchurch shooting massacre, as NZ PM Jacinda Ardern also questioned Facebook’s top executives.
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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Bill Shorten have condemned social media giants in the wake of the Christchurch shooting massacre.
The New Zealand terror attack could play an active role in reforming social networks and holding them to account for distressing content after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also revealed she had talked to top Facebook executives and there were “further questions to answered” about their role.
The revelations follow widespread criticism of Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for failing to stop the spread of brutal, graphic video circulating on their networks from the Christchurch shooting, which claimed the lives of 50 people.
The video, which was broadcast live on Facebook for 17 minutes, remained available to view for hours after the attack, despite the requests of New Zealand Police.
Ms Ardern said she had discussed the issue with Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, reiterating that New Zealand authorities “did as much as we could to remove, or seek to have removed” video of the attack, but were at the social network’s mercy.
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“Ultimately, it has been up to those platforms to facilitate their removal and support their removal,” she said. “I do think that there are further questions to be answered.”
Ms Ardern said the issue of live-streaming shootings and other tragedies on social media was not contained to the Christchurch attack, but the country’s government could play a part in halting the gruesome practice.
“Obviously the social media platforms have wide reach. This is a problem that goes well beyond New Zealand. It has played out in other parts of the world,” she said.
“This is an issue that goes well beyond New Zealand but it doesn’t mean we can’t play an active role in seeing it resolved.”
Update from Mia Garlick, Facebook New Zealand: "We continue to work around the clock to remove violating content using a combination of technology and people...
— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) March 17, 2019
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...
— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) March 17, 2019
Out of respect for the people affected by this tragedy and the concerns of local authorities, we're also removing all edited versions of the video that do not show graphic content." — Mia Garlick, Facebook New Zealand
— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) March 17, 2019
Labor leader Bill Shorten has said companies like Facebook have created a “swamp” where extremists can roam free.
Mr Shorten echoed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s view that social media giants should be held to account for allowing material to be published and broadcast that would land traditional media companies such as newspapers in court.
“I say to the social media giants, you have a commercial dynamic that you sell as liberty. But there is no liberty to hate. There is no liberty to practice hate speech,” he said on Sunday.
“I say to those big social media giants, you cannot be distant, an island away from the conduct of your platforms.”
“We wouldn’t allow television or print media to put out some of the filth and rubbish, and violence, and perversion which gets put out in social media, so we can’t just have one standard for old technology and give a leave pass to new technology.
“Why is it that when it comes to making a dollar the big social media giants know everything about the users of social media, (but) when it comes to detecting and preventing and discouraging hate speech, then they become Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of the whole affair.”
Facebook has previously faced criticism for live-streaming video footage of a man murdering his 11-month-old baby in Thailand, the torture of a disabled man in Chicago, and the shooting of a 74-year-old man in Cleveland.
Syracuse University communications assistant professor Jennifer Grygiel said the social network should take urgent action following its latest live video controversy to prevent young users being exposed to damaging content.
Mr Morrison has said: “In the past, they have suspended this sort of Facebook live-streaming and assurances were given that when it was put back up, it could avoid this. Clearly it hasn’t. So I think there is some very real discussions that have to be had about how these facilities and capabilities, as they exist on social media, can continue to be offered where there can’t be the assurances given at a technology level, that once these images get out there, it is very difficult to prevent them.”
“Facebook should institute an immediate live-steam delay for youth aged 13 to 18 so they are not serving as live-stream content moderators of death or terror,” they said. (OK)
“What about the members of public who flagged it? And how many of them were children? We need stats on who moderates these acts of terrorism.”
Detecting Non-Consensual Intimate Images and Supporting Victims https://t.co/h8yhpBQV3O
— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) March 15, 2019
Facebook has yet to announce any changes to the network’s live-streaming feature following the massacre, but spokeswoman Mia Garlick said the company’s human moderators and artificial intelligence software had continued to remove “violating content” of the shooting from the network.
“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,” she said.
“Out of respect for the people affected by this tragedy and the concerns of local authorities, we’re also removing all edited versions of the video that do not show graphic content.”
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Leaked training documents for Facebook moderators warn they should look for “display or sound of guns,” “screams, shouting,” and “crying, pleading, begging” in live videos on the platform, but neither human moderators nor the company’s AI technology flagged the New Zealand video in the first instance.
Facebook’s share price fell steeply following news of its latest controversy, and Investing.com global financial markets platform analyst Clement Thibault warned the multibillion-dollar company would “undoubtedly be called into question” over its role.
“The live-streaming of New Zealand’s shooting will certainly bring on more questions of regulation and scrutiny over Facebook,” he said.
Originally published as Christchurch mosque shooting: Social media firms including Facebook face ‘questions to be answered’
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