Tech Firms Struggle To Keep Videos Of New Zealand Shooting Off Their Platforms

Major tech firms including Twitter, Google, and Facebook are struggling to keep the distressing footage of New Zealand mass shooting off of their platforms. The Friday attack killed 50 people while left 49 injured.

A 28-year-old man named Brenton Tarrant from Australia was later charged with one count of murder through judges say that the number would probably go up.

The footage appeared first on Facebook. A 74-page document about white-supremacist themes was shared by accounts linked to Tarrant.

New Zealand law enforcement has asked people to stop sharing the distressing video.

Facebook announced on Twitter that 1.5 million videos, as well as one Instagram account, have been deleted.

Twitter also suspended Tarrant’s account.

According to HuffPost, the document was initially posted to 8chan, which is an online messaging board, and Tarrant’s Twitter account.

Deletion, however, has not stopped people from uploading the manifesto and other versions of the footage.

Business Insider reported that it was easy to search for the video on both Facebook and YouTube through simple search terms. Each video had a graphic content warning attached, but people still click through to watch the footage.

Tarrant’s manifesto could also be found on Google and Twitter.

One of the reasons is that users manipulate search terms to get around social media moderation.

For example, they upload Tarrant’s manifesto and the video footage but change the caption by misspelling his name.

Mia Garlick, a Facebook spokeswoman said:

Facebook is utilizing a mix of human reviewers, user reports, and technology to detect videos or other related content.

Twitter confirmed it was actively removing copies of the video. A Twitter’s spokeswoman said:

A Google spokeswoman said:

Besides social-media firms, newspaper sites like the daily Mirro, the Sun, and MailOnline also faced criticism over having parts of the manifesto or the edited shooting footage