French Muslim group sues Facebook and YouTube over footage of Christchurch mosque attack
French Council of the Muslim Faith launches formal legal complaint against social media companies and says they disseminated material that encourages terrorism
Paris — One of the main groups representing Muslims in France said on Monday it was suing Facebook and YouTube, accusing them of inciting violence by allowing the streaming of footage of the Christchurch massacre on their platforms. The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) said the companies had disseminated material that encouraged terrorism and harmed the dignity of human beings. There was no immediate comment from either company. The shooting at two mosques in New Zealand on March 15, which killed 50 people, was live streamed on Facebook for 17 minutes and then copied and shared on social media sites across the internet. Facebook said it raced to remove hundreds of thousands of copies. However, footage could still be found on Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet’s YouTube a few hours after the attack, as well as Facebook-owned Instagram and Whatsapp. Abdallah Zekri, president of the CFCM’s Islamophobia monitoring unit, said the organisation had launched a formal legal complaint ag...
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