Facebook was on constant lookout for footage of the terrible event.
In a terrifying turn of events just last week, a terrorist struck fear into the hearts of people worldwide when he started broadcasting a mass shooting live on Facebook at two Muslim mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The livestream lasted about 17 minutes. During the time, the terrorist managed to kill over 50 individuals – all caught on camera. The videos are posted all over the internet, most especially on Facebook, where the original live stream was happening.
Facebook, as well as other social media platforms, have been in a constant ‘clean-up’ operation since, making sure that there are no errant videos of the mass shooting remaining on their websites. Facebook has already said that it removed 1.5 million videos of the attack within the first 24 hours. 1.2 million of these videos were blocked during the upload, so they never even made it to the site. Twitter and YouTube have apparently done the same, but they have yet to release specific figures.
The original Livestream was deleted by Facebook within an hour after the shooting happened. The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, said that she “will seek talks” with Facebook regarding its efforts on stopping the circulation of the controversial video.
