The Prime Minister isn’t ruling out changing laws that could go as far as blocking Facebook if it’s used to share extremist or violent content like the alleged Christchurch gunman’s video of the March 15 terror attack.
by Tova O’Brien, Newshub, 14/5/19
Jacinda Ardern is in Paris ahead of her Christchurch Call summit – a meeting with technology giant executives and world leaders gathered to try and tackle the problem of social media being used to spread extremist ideologies.
She’s co-hosting the summit in Paris this week with French President Emmanuel Macron, where it’s expected countries and companies will pledge to regulate social media, in the wake of the Christchurch attack Facebook livestream.
Here’s how the pledge is likely to look:
- An expectation about removing violent or extremist content – but with no deadlines given for companies to take down the footage.
- Finding ways to identify the content – even if it’s been edited – is a priority.
- Algorithms could change so if people search for white supremacist content, for example, they aren’t directed to more of the same – they could be steered to help services instead.
- And a global crisis response system – so in the same way our agencies have plans for earthquakes, they’ll be able to take immediate action with terrorism online.
The pledge will not be binding, meaning it’s up to individual countries to legislate.
“The pledge is more of a blueprint – law changes will follow,” Ardern told Newshub. “Yes, there’s work for us to do on our own domestic legislation – we haven’t determined what that will look like – that work’s yet to come.”
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