Pressure mounts on Facebook to monitor content after New Zealand attack
Group of 20 nations urged to consider crackdown on social media platforms
Canberra/Wellington/Sydney — Pressure is building on Facebook and other social media platforms to stop hosting extremist propaganda including terrorist events, after Friday’s deadly attacks on two mosques in New Zealand were live-streamed. Australia’s prime minister has urged the Group of 20 nations to use a meeting in June to discuss a crackdown, while New Zealand media reported the nation’s biggest banks have pulled their advertising from Facebook and Google. “We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and what is said is not the responsibility of the place where they are published,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told parliament on Tuesday. “They are the publisher, not just the postman. There cannot be a case of all profit, no responsibility.” Facebook said it had been working directly with New Zealand police and across the technology industry to “help counter hate speech and the threat of terrorism”. The lone shooter accused of killing 50 peo...
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