Facebook pressed to curb extremism after New Zealand mosque attacks

CANBERRA, Australia — Pressure is building on Facebook and other social media platforms to stop hosting extremist propaganda, including acts of terrorism, after Friday’s deadly attacks on two mosques in New Zealand were live-streamed.

Australia’s prime minister has urged the Group of 20 nations to use a meeting in June to discuss a crackdown, while New Zealand media reported the nation’s biggest banks have pulled their advertising from Facebook and Google.

“We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and what is said is not the responsibility of the place where they are published,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Parliament on Tuesday. “They are the publisher, not just the postman. There cannot be a case of all profit, no responsibility.”

Facebook said it had been working directly with New Zealand police and across the technology industry to “help counter hate speech and the threat of terrorism.”

The lone shooter accused of killing 50 people in the New Zealand city of Christchurch live-streamed the murders, with the video continuing to be widely available on a range of platforms hours after the attack. The suspect, an Australian, uploaded his hate-filled manifesto online shortly before launching his assault.

The shooting video was viewed fewer than 200 times during its live broadcast, and no users reported the video during that time, Facebook vicepresident and deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby said in a blog post.

It was reported to the company 29 minutes after the video started and viewed 4,000 times before being removed, Sonderby said.