Apology issued to Māori over racist video

InternetNZ, Aotearoa’s internet guardian, has made an apology for the harm its institutional racism has caused Māori.

In mid-2021, a YouTube video containing discriminatory and racist threats, including threats of mass violence against Māori, was circulating online, and it took nearly 24 hours to be taken down.

‘‘We did not step up and defend Māori communities or work to have the material removed from the internet, and we were wrong,’’ a statement released on the InternetNZ website yesterday says.

It commissioned an independent report by CORE Education tumu whakarae (chief executive) Hana O’Regan, which found evidence of institutional racism within InternetNZ’s historic foundations and at membership, governance, management and staff levels.

Amid the video takedown and backlash, two Māori women who were InternetNZ councillors complained that InternetNZ’s failure to act in response to the threats was systemic racism. There were complaints that InternetNZ – the home and guardian for the .nz domain – did not act quickly and clearly enough to condemn racist extremism online or other online threats of violence and harm directed at Māori, and Māori women in particular, the report says.

The two councillors resigned, which prompted the organisation to investigate its systemic racism and seek recommendations from O’Regan.

For Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, cocreator of the New Zealand Māori Internet Society, the apology is long overdue. ‘‘There’s been 25 years of racism in this organisation, the detriment to Māori has been immeasurable.

‘‘Personally, I blame InternetNZ for Māori being overrepresented for being bullied online, they could have made a huge impact and created a lot of resources years ago to prevent bullying of Māori.’’

Taiuru, alongside his colleagues, has been raising concerns about InternetNZ’s treatment towards Māori since 1997, writing to ministers regarding the bullying and harassment Māori faced online and at the hands of InternetNZ for decades, but said everything was overlooked.

It was the video of the white supremacist attempting to incite violence against Māori that was the last straw for Taiuru.