HORROR OF FACEBOOK MASSACRE
Terror attack at mosque was streamed live on social media for 17 horrific minutes
SOCIAL MEDIA added a horrifying new dimension to yesterday’s terror attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, with the killer broadcasting a ‘live stream’ of the atrocity on Facebook for 17 minutes. Brenton Tarrant filmed himself while murdering worshippers and his gut-wrenching footage quickly spread on the internet.
Forty-nine men, women and children were shot dead at two mosques in New Zealand’s worst ever mass killing. Another 48 innocents were wounded. Tarrant, a self-proclaimed racist bent on ethnically cleansing ‘white lands’ of Muslim ‘invaders’, used a headmounted camera as he shot dead 41 defenceless worshippers at the Al Noor mosque at Friday prayers.
Seven more were murdered at Linwood Islamic Centre, 5km away. Another died in hospital later. The youngest victim was reportedly just five years old. Tarrant, who was
arrested after people rammed his car, has appeared in court charged with murder and was remanded without plea until his next appearance on April 5, it was reported last night.
The 28-year-old Australian live-streamed his atrocity for 17 minutes, letting Facebook users see his terrified victims in their final moments.
His warped followers were able to watch the Al Noor massacre live via his headmounted camera.
In a ranting 73-page ‘manifesto’ published online, Tarrant said he was from ‘Scottish, Irish and English stock’ and named disgraced British wartime fascist leader Oswald Mosley as his greatest inspiration.
The Australian’s manifesto is filled with neo-Nazi ideology and hatred for Muslim people.
Leo Varadkar yesterday led Irish condemnation of the murders, saying: ‘New Zealand and its people are open, tolerant and welcoming. We join them today, united in our condemnation of this appalling attack and determined in our resolve that hate will not triumph.’
President Michael D Higgins said: ‘This attack on innocent lives at spaces of worship for a religious community will be condemned by all those who believe in freedom and democratic values.’
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has vowed to change her country’s lenient gun laws following news the killer held a firearms licence. She also revealed there were five guns used during the attack including two semi-automatic weapons.
Police in Christchurch also defused explosive devices in a car, and two other suspects were being held in custody.
The Bangladesh Test cricket side were close to one of the mosques targeted by the terrorist – just as the attack got under way. Team manager Khaled Mashud said: ‘We were maximum 50 yards away. We are very lucky. If we were there three to four minutes earlier, we would have been in the mosque.’ Police tipped off technology firms shortly after the Christchurch carnage began streaming on ‘Facebook Live’. But the film was deleted only after it had been running for 17 minutes – enough time for sick users to copy the footage and repost it across the web. Twitter and YouTube also failed to remove copies of white supremacist Tarrant’s sickening film. Copies of the graphic material were still easy to find on Facebook and Twitter 16 hours after the atrocity – and harder to locate on Google’s
‘Two other suspects’
YouTube. One copy, posted on Twitter by a user called Usman, remained online for more than eight hours and was seen by more than 25,000 people.
A Facebook spokesman said: ‘New Zealand Police alerted us to a video on Facebook shortly after the livestream commenced and we quickly removed both the shooter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and the video.
‘We’re also removing any praise or support for the crime and the shooter or shooters as soon as we’re aware. We will continue working directly with New Zealand Police.’
Twitter said: ‘We are deeply saddened by the shootings in Christchurch. Twitter has rigorous processes and a dedicated team in place for managing exigent and emergency situations such as this.’
Google said: ‘Shocking, violent and graphic content has no place on our platforms, and is removed as soon as we become aware of it.’
Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, who chairs the Irish Muslim Peace & Integration Council, urged people not to share videos of the mass shooting on social media.
He said: ‘It’s unfortunate that some of the videos were shared and some of them are still available on various different social media platforms. ‘I would urge people not to send
or re-share these videos. That’s exactly what the terrorist wants us
to do. I have watched those and I can’t get those images out of my mind.’
It is understood some Muslim clerics told senior gardaí in Dublin that some of their congregation were ‘too afraid’ to attend prayers yesterday. An Garda Síochána yesterday said it had ‘reached out’ to Muslim leaders nationwide to ‘offer any support and assistance required’ over the coming days.
Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy said social media firms need to come up with better systems to stop users live broadcasting disturbing material.
He said: ‘The last thing family and friends who have lost a loved one should have to hear is that the attack was broadcast live on social media. We must have modern rules and regulations for social media that respect human decency and the privacy of other individuals.
‘They are publishers and have to be responsible as do those who use their products and services. There must be a way to effectively monitor live streams to ensure this type of inhumane content is not broadcast or shared.’
‘I can’t get images out of my mind’
YESTERDAY we woke up to the most shocking news imaginable, the mass murder of 49 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch as they attended Friday prayers.
It was amplified by New Zealand being in many ways a mirror image of Ireland on the opposite side of the world, with a similar size population, and also being a former British colony shifting from an agricultural to an urban, technologically and socially advanced society.
Mostly what we share, though, is peace. When our soldiers meet, it is when they wear the blue beret of the United Nations – we are peacekeepers, not aggressors, and we have welcomed the poor and the wretched from warzones when called upon to do so.
For that reason, many might think we in Ireland have been complacent about the potential for such an atrocity here, and while it would be unwise to entirely rule that out, it is worth bearing in mind one crucial difference between our countries: in New Zealand, you can buy handguns and even semi-automatic rifles with the assent of the police, something no ordinary person would be allowed do here.
Gun control laws have kept us safe and that is something for which we should be grateful.
There was, terrifyingly, a new dimension to yesterday’s slaughter, as murderer Brenton Tarrant wore a camera on his forehead and streamed the carnage on Facebook in real time; millions of people have watched it.
In the past, we have seen people uploading videos of their intention to kill, and also vile footage of Isis beheadings and murder by other unthinkably savage means, but never before has a shooting been broadcast as it happened.
Like most young people, 28-year-old Tarrant is tech savvy and a slavish devotee of some of YouTube’s biggest stars, and fully aware of the power of social media to advance an agenda.
Certainly, many millions more will have read his sick ‘manifesto’ and while most will recoil in horror, there are others who will be swayed by his ecofascist agenda. That is what people like him want above all else – they want publicity.
The internet has, in the space of two short decades since it spread into the wider population, changed everything about our world and the way it operates. It was placed in the hands of every person on the planet, quite literally in the shape of a smartphone, without any thought for the consequences.
What Christchurch shows is that we need to have a serious conversation about where we go next, and how the abuse of something that should be a force for good can be curtailed when it is put in the service of pure evil.
The detail of that debate is for another day. For now, we think of nothing and no one but an act of extreme and stomachchurning violence, of those who died, and of the relatives and friends left behind. Our hearts are with Christchurch and its Muslim community.