Struggle to shut down live video recording

Horrific live footage of the Christchurch mosque shootings, apparently taken by a gunman, was still circulating on Facebook about 5.30pm yesterday – hours after it was posted to social media.

The live video, which appeared to be taken from a camera attached to the gunman, was also uploaded to YouTube a short time after the attack.

Facebook spokeswoman Antonia Sanda was not immediately able to confirm when the social media giant first became aware of the footage but said staff had been working with ‘‘law enforcement’’ to remove it.

Spark spokesman Andrew Pirie said the company, Vodafone and the country’s third largest internet provider, Vocus, had agreed to block their customers accessing three overseas websites that would not be known to most New Zealanders but that had provided access to the video.

Pirie said he believed New Zealand internet providers had never previously taken such a step.

Spark would not be blocking access to Facebook, he said, saying that would be ‘‘an extreme step’’ and there were other avenues to tackle the issue of footage being reposted to the platform.

A spokeswoman for Google, which owns YouTube, said it removed a video after at least 100 people had viewed it and more than halfa-dozen people had left comments.

Google would work with the New Zealand authorities to offer any assistance it could, she said.

‘‘Our hearts go out to the victims of this terrible tragedy. Shocking, violent and graphic videos have no place on our platform, and are removed as soon as we become aware of them,’’ she said.