Home Technology Social Media sites fight to keep extremist content of New Zealand mass shooting offline

Social Media sites fight to keep extremist content of New Zealand mass shooting offline

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I regularly write about the evils of social media, but the truth is that the technology is not really the problem. It is merely a conduit for the worst of humanity to find a voice that ruins it for the rest of us. After the tragic events that occurred in Christchurch last Friday which saw 50 people murdered at the hands of an anti-immigration terrorist, it is a problem that several sites realised needed to be combatted as they made an effort to stop the glorification of the violent act.

The terrorist was clearly not just doing this despicable act for the sake of killing people, but also trying to publicise his cause as he made a video of the despicable act and posted it on several social media platforms. Thankfully, it appears that while he couldn’t prevent it from being seen by many people, most sites reacted quickly in removing the video and many different edits thereof, to ensure that the content was spread further online.

Facebook claimed that in the space of 24 hours, they had removed 1.5 million videos of the attack globally, of which over 1.2 million of those were blocked at upload, meaning the world never got to see the horrific event broadcast. FaceBook was not the only site to clamp down on this, as both Twitter and YouTube have been working to remove videos since the attack. Reddit also banned a subreddit called r/watchpeopledie, while Valve began removing tributes to the killer that were posted to user profiles.

This massacre though is only the tip of the iceberg as social media platforms have been a hotbed for extremist views and I think what would be more important is to see if anything happens further from here. While the internet should always offer an element of freedom of speech, hate speech should not form part of that freedom and the battle ca only completely be won if extremist views are blocked before they lead to events like this.

In truth, it’s unlikely that social media can ever solve the stupidity of the human race, but if it can at least stop giving it a voice to the worst of society, we may make some progress. How do you think social media can best tackle the rise of extremism in the world?

Last Updated: March 18, 2019

20 Comments

  1. PoisonedBelial

    March 18, 2019 at 15:21

    The human race is such a cancer.

    #ThanosWasRight

    Reply

    • Pariah

      March 18, 2019 at 15:33

      #HeAlsoDidn’tChooseWhoDiedItWasRandomSoAsshatsLikeKaasieCould’veSurvivedEasily

      😛

      Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

        March 18, 2019 at 15:34

        Half the stupidity is better than all the stupidity

        Reply

  2. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    March 18, 2019 at 15:22

    Answer is simple. Remove social media. The masses have proven that we cannot responsibly use technology, so said technology must be revoked.

    Too bad for the rest of the people who could have used it constructively.

    Reply

  3. Spathi

    March 18, 2019 at 15:24

    “While the internet should always offer an element of freedom of speech, hate speech should not form part of that freedom and the battle ca only completely be won if extremist views are blocked before they lead to events like this.”

    Who defines hate speech?

    Reply

    • SagatatiaRZA

      March 18, 2019 at 15:34

      In general that might be questioned but in this case it seems pretty on the nose.

      Reply

      • Spathi

        March 18, 2019 at 15:34

        Yeah definitely, the guy deserves no attention and I’m all for removing the links and videos, but I question the term “hate speech”.

        Reply

        • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

          March 18, 2019 at 15:45

          You’re right to question the term. Use of language is an art form, even though we all use it.

          Therefore, language can be twisted and even ciphered to spew hate speech without it appearing so.

          Reply

        • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

          March 18, 2019 at 15:45

          You’re right to question the term. Use of language is an art form, even though we all use it.

          Therefore, language can be twisted and even ciphered to spew hate speech without it appearing so.

          Reply

    • HairyEwok

      March 18, 2019 at 15:33

      I would say the majority of people, but then again media plays a bigger role as to what is good and bad.

      Reply

      • Spathi

        March 18, 2019 at 15:34

        And people are fucking idiots 😀

        Reply

        • Pariah

          March 18, 2019 at 15:38

          Excuse me. I require intelligence in those I fuck, thank you very much!

          Reply

          • Spathi

            March 18, 2019 at 15:39

            Hahhaha! That’s a oxymoron – person fucking Pariah / intelligent person – choose one!

          • Pariah

            March 18, 2019 at 15:39

            Ouchies! You and @theseasonswither:disqus can piss right off. Bastards!!! XD

          • PoisonedBelial

            March 18, 2019 at 15:39

            *cough cough*

      • Pariah

        March 18, 2019 at 15:34

        No they play a major role in making something appear worse (or rarely, better) than it aught to. We as a society decide what’s good or bad, and the media uses those decisions to make a mountain out of a flat surface.

        Reply

  4. Guz

    March 18, 2019 at 16:43

    Extremists have been using social media to recruit and spread their message for years! I personally think things like facebook live are a terrible idea as it can be abused to easily. Also Facebook doesn’t care, all they care about is money

    Reply

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