Even though major social media services have been censoring the Christchurch, New Zealand shooting since it happened, apparently the censorship wasn’t fast or hard enough for some advertisers.
According to the New Zealand Herald, advertisers are now pulling out support from Facebook and Google because they reportedly felt as if the social media giants didn’t do enough to curb the live-streaming of the shooter’s video and block the spread of the 74-page manifesto.
On March 18th, 2019, the outlet reported…
“The Herald understands that ASB, Lotto NZ, Burger King, Spark and number of other companies have banded together to take a stand against the harm caused by unmoderated content.
“It’s understood that marketing managers from the different companies spoke over the weekend about what they could do promote change in the industry.
“At this stage, it is still unclear how extensive the pull-back will be or for how long the companies are likely to pull their digital ads.”
Other New Zealand institutions including Kiwibank, ANZ, and BNZ have also suspended digital advertising since March 15th, 2019, directly after the attacks had reportedly occurred.
The Association of New Zealand Advertisers and the Commercial Communications Council issued a statement saying that social media platforms needed to be more proactive in ensuring that such “horrors” are never allowed to be live-streamed from their services again, essentially enacting a widespread blackout on any kind of content that mega-corporations and advertisers deem offensive or objectionable.
According to the Association of the New Zealand Advertisers chief executive, Lindsay Mouat, he explained to the New Zealand Herald…
“Perhaps when the dollars start to go, you’ll get a response […] If the site owners can target consumers with advertising in microseconds, why can’t the same technology be applied to prevent this kind of content being streamed live?”
Journalist Nick Monroe reported that companies like Facebook were not sitting by idly while the attack was live-streamed through their service. In fact, they were removing millions of pieces of content from being viewed on the platform in relation to the Christchurch shooting.
Facebook removes 1.5 million videos of Christchurch attack https://t.co/r279zP2svl
OVER REACH
“Out of respect for the people affected by this tragedy and the concerns of local authorities, we’re also removing all edited versions of the video that do not show graphic content” pic.twitter.com/idSpuORfKq— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 17, 2019
Not only that but domain servers have also vowed a blackout on websites hosting such content, proving that they are acting fast at the behest of advertisers and other corporations asking for more widespread censorship of such events.
FURTHER CENSORSHIP outlined by Discount Domains, responding to the Christchurch attack
“Of concern to us is the use of the internet in these attacks, both to research and to stream the events live.”
Vows TAKEDOWN of content based on “moral and social responsibilities” pic.twitter.com/I86nLYuiMJ
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 18, 2019
In the tweet sent to Monroe, it contained a letter that was sent out by the Discount Domains’ team, wherein it stated…
“Hate and violence have no part in our society. On Friday our country was rocked by the most cowardly of attacks, and our hearts go out to all those families impacted by the tragedy.
“Of concern to us is the use of the internet in these attacks, both to research and to stream the events live. As New Zealand’s largest web hosting company with nearly 100,000 customers across our various brands we have a social responsibility to ensure that our customers are using our services for the public good.
“As a proudly New Zealand owned IT company we are sending this timely reminder to our customers that we will have zero tolerance to accounts that are abusing our terms and conditions which are very clear on the matter of inappropriate content. We are also increasing the amount of scanning across our servers to help ensure that we identify any inappropriate content being held on our customers’ websites. Where appropriate we will take down these websites to ensure our customers are aligned with us on our moral and social responsibilities.
“We also encourage you all to report abuse of our terms and conditions if you become aware of them. We will act swiftly.
“The Umbrella Group employs staff from all backgrounds and all religions. We employ New Zealanders. That is what we stand for and how we want to be viewed.
“Our little paradise at the bottom of the world is in mourning. To the families directly impacted and to all of New Zealand, we stand beside you.”
Other organizations are also blocking access to the manifesto and the shooter’s live-streamed video of the massacre.
YouTube has also filtered out all of the search results for the time being in order to prevent users from searching up videos containing the manifesto or imagery from the video. Twitter has also been censoring content containing the manifesto or certain details about the shooter.
Some New Zealand internet service providers, in particular Spark, have been banning access to 4chan, 8chan, Bitchute, Kiwifarms, and Liveleak, all in an attempt to suppress access to information related to the shooting beyond what the mainstream news is reporting.
Ironically, all of this was part of the shooter’s plan, as outlined in the manifesto. His goal was to increase social divides, mainstream hysteria, and sow division through censorship and hamfisted infringement of rights, which is what New Zealand is doing right now by proposing new legislation on gun control.
The shooter’s manifesto was described by some as an act of “accelerationism”, in which case he wanted to speed up the process in which society fractured and engaged in a civil race war.
(Thanks for the news tip The Positivist)
