Far-right accounts are rarely held against such high standards. Last year, our report on the diversity problem in/on Facebook touched upon its role in proliferating hate speech against African-American communities and suspending their support networks on outlandish grounds all the time. Many have condemned the lack of backstops on Facebook to curb hate speech and movements motivated at inflicting violence on minority communities. If that is true, there is ostensibly no reason for Facebook to not take the warning seriously and sit this one out, unless there is. This is where it gets a little tricky: A reporter for Right Wing Watch insists he was alerted to the live video and raised the alarm immediately. In a blog published Monday, Facebook claimed that no users reported the video of the New Zealand mosque shootings while it was still live. The social networking site, later, also took down the gunman’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. The live video was reportedly viewed less than 200 times on Facebook, while it had at least 4,000 views after the live-stream ended and before it was taken down. He allegedly posted a link to the 17-minute-long stream immediately on 8Chan, an imageboard site known for a being a hotbed of far-right extremist views, but more on that later. How else is it earthly possible that the shooter, later identified as Australian citizen Brenton Harrison Tarrant, live-streamed his shooting spree via a body-mounted camera? The devastating attack and its online nature has triggered some necessary questions, yet again: has social media gone too far in aiding and abetting white supremacist terrorism? Has the internet abyss become a breeding ground for the far-right to carry out its extremist agenda? What’s being done and what do more can tech giants do to block and ban reported content? Has the freedom of speech gone too far or has the far-right monopolised it? White-supremacy check and content moderation
Major web platforms, including social media and video-sharing sites, have faced renewed criticism for being slow to respond to the first-ever live-streamed mass shooting as they scrambled to take down the 17-minute video. The shooter uploaded a 74-page manifesto espousing white supremacy that was full of memes (on Twitter and 8chan) in that, he identified himself as a white nationalist out to avenge Muslims’ attacks in Europe, while streaming the carnage live on Facebook as he opened fire on the worshippers. One of the most talked-about aspects of the Christchurch Mosque massacre in New Zealand last Friday, March 15, is the fact that the 28-year-old shooter’s attack, which left 50 Muslims including 8 Indians dead, began and ended online.
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