Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for a suspension to livestreaming following the horrific terrorist attack in Christchurch last week.
On Friday, the world was shocked to learn of a mass-shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. With 50 victims killed in the attack, it has become the deadliest mass shooting in modern New Zealand history.
In the wake of the attack, a number of social media services came under fire for hosting – and providing the ability for users to share – the video of the attack, which was livestreamed on Facebook by the 28-year-old Australian suspect.
Although services such as Facebook reportedly removed 1.5 million videos of the attack in the 24 hours after it occurred, numerous copies continue to spring up, with many criticising the livestreaming and sharing capabilities of the site.
Now, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has joined in the fight, asking for such an ability to be suspended.
Speaking to the Australian Financial Review, Scott Morrison explained that Facebook had reportedly taken similar measures following incidents in the past, only to assure users that measures would be put in place to avoid such a thing happening again.
“There is very real discussions that have to be had about how these facilities and capabilities, as they exist on social media, can continue to be offered where there can’t be the assurances given at a technology level,” Mr. Morrison explained.
“Once these images get out there, it is very difficult to prevent them.”
As spokesperson for Twitter told The Business Insider, many of these services already have teams (and various forms of artificial intelligence) in place that are dedicated to removing offensive material.
“We have dedicated government and law enforcement reporting channels for illegal content,” a spokesperson explained.
“We have a specially trained team that reviews each report against the Twitter Rules and our Terms of Service, and determines whether or not it is in violation.”
Whether or not a the answer to such a problem is a blanket ban (or temporary suspension) on livestreaming remains unclear, however, it seems that until we find a suitable solution, we may need to hope that social media teams manage to create better safeguards to prevent the sharing of offensive material.
