‘Christchurch Call’ adopted

A dozen countries and global tech giants including Facebook, Google and Twitter pledged on Wednesday to find ways to keep internet platforms from being used to spread hate, organise extremist groups and broadcast terror attacks.

But White House said the US will not sign the “Christchurch Call to Action” against online extremism discussed at the meeting led by French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The call is a set of guidelines named after the New Zealand city where 51 people were killed in a March attack on mosques. Part of the attack had been broadcast live on Facebook, drawing public outrage and fuelling the debate on how to better regulate social media.

The agreement, which was drafted by the French and New Zealand governments, aims to prevent similar abuses of the internet while insisting that any actions must preserve “the principles of a free, open and secure internet, without compromising human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

The call was adopted by Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, YouTube, along with France’s Qwant and DailyMotion, and the Wikimedia Foundation. The countries backing it were France, New Zealand, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Jordan, Norway, Senegal, Indonesia and the European Union’s executive body. Facebook is tightening its livestreaming rules with a “one strike” policy applied to a broad range of offences. Sharing extremist groups’ statements without context will result in temporary blocking. The most serious offences will result in a permanent ban.