The first social media terror attack
Far-right racist kills 49 at mosques in New Zealand Video of rampage spreads across the world online
TECHNOLOGY giants were told last night “enough is enough” after the massacre of 49 people at two mosques in New Zealand was live-streamed around the world in the first “terror attack designed for social media”.
Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, condemned tech firms’ failure to stop the 17-minute video being shared for more than 10 hours after the self-professed white supremacist killer Brenton Tarrant opened fire on Muslims at prayer.
Reacting to a tweet in which Youtube claimed it was working to remove the footage, Mr Javid said Youtube, Google, Facebook and Twitter “really need to do more to stop violent extremism being promoted on your platforms”. He added: “Take some ownership. Enough is enough.”
Damian Collins, the chairman of the Commons culture committee, said it appeared to be a “terror attack designed for social media” and demonstrated why there had to be “statutory regulation of the distribution of content online through social networks”.
Tarrant, 28, from Grafton, Australia, live-streamed his bloody rampage on Facebook after posting links to a 73page hate-filled “manifesto” on 8chan, a site with millions of anonymous users which has been previously linked to the sharing of child pornography. The video showed him entering Al Noor Mosque, Christchurch, at 1.30pm in army fatigues and killing 41 worshippers. Seven people were then shot dead at or near the Masjid Mosque and 48 were injured. A 49th victim died in hospital. Tarrant was arrested along with two other men and a woman and later appeared in court charged with murder.
He did not request bail and was taken into custody until his next court appearance, scheduled for April 5.
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister said at a press conference last night that Tarrant had a small arsenal of semi-automatic weapons and a valid gun licence. “I can tell you one thing right now, our gun laws will change,” she said.
Tarrant maximised his impact on social media by flagging up the attack on 8chan half an hour earlier. By naming Pewdiepie, a British-based Youtuber with 89.5million subscribers, and Candace Jones, a US conservative commentator with 1.13 million Twitter followers, online, he generated publicity from their attempts to dissociate themselves from him. His “manifesto” claiming “Fortnite trained me to be a killer” was similarly designed to stir reaction from the game’s followers.
It emerged last night that three days before the shooting, Tarrant posted pictures of his guns, daubed with farright slogans, on his Twitter account.
He also appears to have outwitted artificial intelligence tools used to block disturbing content by Facebook and Youtube, which struggled to respond in real time yesterday. The Facebook video of the killings was viewed 23,000 times in an hour and was only taken down after 239,924 people had seen it.
Some 10 hours after the attack the footage was still being shared on Youtube. Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said the response was “not good enough” after Youtube, owned by Google, “reviewed” a copy of the video before removing it. Facebook said it acted quickly to delete Tarrant’s accounts and video after being alerted by police. Youtube said it was “working vigilantly to remove violent footage”. And a Twitter spokesman said it had “rigorous processes and a dedicated team” for such emergencies.
Theresa May said the Government expected tech firms to “act more quickly to remove terrorist content”. Her spokesman said: “There should be no safe spaces for terrorists to promote and share their extreme views and radicalise others.” Mrs May sent New Zealand Britain’s “deepest condolences”, adding that targeting people at their place of worship was “despicable”.
In the US, Donald Trump said he did not think the massacre showed that white nationalism was a growing problem. “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Ms Ardern, described the attacks as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”.
YOU could hear a pin drop as the faithful settled down to hear the Imam’s sermon. Then came the deafening crack of gunfire.
Seconds later, panic spread through Christchurch’s Al Noor mosque as those inside realised what was happening and tried desperately to flee or find shelter from the bullets.
By the time the carnage ended, 41 people lay dead, with seven more killed at an Islamic centre a few miles away. A 49th victim died in hospital, where another 48 were being treated, many for gunshot wounds.
As New Zealanders tried to come to terms with the dreadful events they had witnessed, Jacinda Arden, their prime minister, described it as one of the country’s “darkest days”.
It had started routinely, with 300 people attending Friday prayers inside the Al Noor mosque, located close to the city’s Hagley Park.
Farid Ahmed, who was among the congregation, would later describe it as “peaceful, calm and quiet. As it is when the sermon starts, you could hear a pin drop”.
But at 1.40pm, gunfire broke out. “It started in the main room,” said Mr Ahmed. “I was in the side room, so I didn’t see who was shooting, but I saw that some people were running out to my room where I was in; I saw some people had blood on their body and some people were limping. It was at [that] moment I realised things were really serious.”
It became apparent that a gunman was making his way from room to room, shooting at anyone he saw, starting with the men’s prayer room before moving to the women’s section.
Mr Ahmed said the shooting went on “for six minutes or more”.
He said: “I could hear screaming and crying, I saw some people drop dead, some people were running away; I was in a wheelchair, so I couldn’t get anywhere.”
After the shooting ended, Mr Ahmed managed to push himself in his wheelchair into the main part of the mosque, desperately trying to find his wife and to help others.
“To the right, I saw about 20-plus people; some were dead, some were screaming. On the left there were 10plus people; some were dead,” he said.
“I saw the bullet shells on the floor, so many hundreds.”
Another worshipper, who hid underneath a bench, described how the gunman calmly reloaded at least seven times before targeting those fleeing.
“Bang, bang, bang; then when the bullets stopped he [would] change the magazine again,” said Mr Ahmed.
Mohan Ibrahim was inside the mosque when he heard shots, mistaking them for a short-circuit in the building’s lighting system.
“At first we thought it was an electric shock but then all these people started running. I realised it was a gun shooting,” he said. “I managed to get out. It was like 10 to 15 minutes of continuous shooting. He was changing his gun. I cannot forget the sound of shooting and scenery I saw with my eyes. Innocent people have just died.”
Also nearby when the killing began were members of the Bangladesh cricket team – on tour in New Zealand – who managed to escape with their lives.
Tamim Iqbal, his country’s most successful batsman, later said the “entire team got saved from active shooters”, adding “please keep us in your prayers”.
Len Peneha, who lives near the mosque, had watched in horror from outside as the gunman, dressed in black, entered.
He then heard dozens of shots, followed by people fleeing the building in terror, many of them barefoot, having taken off their shoes before going in, as is customary for Muslims.
As the gunman fled, Mr Peneha went inside to try to help the injured, taking five to his nearby home.
“I saw dead people everywhere,” he said. “There were three in the hallway, at the door leading into the mosque, and people inside the mosque.”
Mr Peneha added: “I don’t understand how anyone could do this to these people, to anyone. I’ve lived next door to this mosque for about five years and the people are great, they’re very friendly. I just don’t understand it.”
A short time after the massacre at the Al Noor mosque, the horror began again as a gunman entered the Linwood Islamic Centre, a 10-minute drive away. Here, seven worshippers were killed when a gunman wearing a black motorcycle helmet opened fire on 100 people praying inside.
Mark Nichols, the manager of nearby Premium Tyres, reported seeing the attacker run past his shop before hearing five gunshots from the direction of the mosque. Moments later, two of the injured were carried past on stretchers.
“I’ve seen a guy with a gun running up the road. He’s been firing about five shots,” Mr Nichols said.
“It might have been a shotgun. I didn’t get a good look at it, I just cleared off.”
Syed Ahmed described the Linwood gunman as “shouting something” as he targeted victims, including several elderly people who had been sitting on chairs as they were unable to kneel for prayers.
The initial attack was streamed live on Facebook. The 17-minute video showed the man driving toward the Al Noor mosque with several high-powered rifles on the passenger seat of his silver Subaru. On them were written the names of Luca Traini, a far-right Italian terrorist jailed for 12 years for shooting and wounding six African migrants in the city of Macerata last year, and Josué Estébanez, a Spanish former soldier who stabbed and killed a 16-year-old anti-fascist protester in Madrid in 2007.
On the gunman’s ammunition clips was written “For Rotherham”, in an apparent twisted reference to the child abuse grooming gang.
The gunman appeared to be listening to a song called Remove Kebab, first sung by Serbian soldiers in tribute to Radovan Karadžić, the war criminal.
A military-style song then begins, before the sat-nav announces he has reached his destination. Three minutes into the video, the attacker stops the car, directs the camera at himself and says “hello lads” before setting off again. Approaching the entrance of the mosque, the gunman begins firing indiscriminately. At one point a man runs toward him, only to be gunned down.
He emerges after several minutes and children’s screams can be heard as he fires at the dead and dying outside, including a woman who stumbles into the street shouting for help.
Back in the car, and after apparently driving over the woman he had just killed, he laughs and says the attack “did not go as planned … ----ing Christ”, before driving away. Fire, by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, is playing from the car speakers, with the line “I
‘It was 10 to 15 minutes of continuous shooting. I cannot forget the sound and scenery … Innocent people have just died’
‘I saw dead people everywhere. There were three in the hallway, at the door into the mosque, and people inside’