Christchurch attacks: Facebook removes 4.5m pieces of violating content in just six months

Thursday, 14 November 2019

In the six months following the Christchurch terror attacks that killed 51 people, Facebook removed around 4.5 million pieces of violating content, according to a new report.

Facebook's vice president of integrity Guy Rosen explained 97 per cent of this content was proactively removed before users reported it.

'Most of this content was identified by our media-matching systems when they were uploaded and we continue to remove known copies of this content from the platform,' he wrote in a post on the platform.

The data was released in the company's fourth Community Standards Enforcement Report and its bi-annual Content Restrictions Report.

Millions of pieces of violating content have been removed from Facebook since the Christchurch terror attacks in March, according to a new report.

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The faces of 46 of the 50 victims of the Christchurch terror attack.

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Following the incident on March 15, Chief Censor David Shanks labelled the footage objectionable and an offence to produce or distribute. Several people had been charged on th ese grounds since that ruling.

The report explained how Facebook took steps to remove content that breached its Community Standards policy, content that was flagged by the New Zealand government, and content removed because of the extraordinary circumstances of the incident. It's not known how many posts were removed for each reason.

Rosen said edited and non-graphic versions of the objectionable material shared by news organisations and users with the intent to 'condemn or raise awareness of the attacks' were also removed.

'This would not normally violate our policies, however, out of respect for the people affected by this tragedy, and due to a range of factors including the virality and cross-platform spread of this content and the New Zealand Government's decision to classify the content as objectionable, and therefore illegal, we took the unprecedented action to remove globally - instead of locally restrict - all content depicting the attack.'

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hugs a mosque-goer at the Kilbirnie Mosque in March.

Shank previously described the attack as 'probably the most harmful media event ever inflicted on the people of one nation'.

He said the global spread of the footage of the massacre on social media made the incident 'a uniquely horrific and impactful media harm event, over and above what a horrific and vicious terrorist attack it was'.

Rosen believed the use of technology by the alleged shooter as 'unprecedented'.

'The Christchurch attack was unprecedented in both the use of live streaming technology and the rapid sharing of video, image, audio and text-based content depicting the attack.'

The Christchurch mosque attack wasn't the only incident to use Facebook's live streaming technology - footage circulated of an antisemitic shooting in Germany in October. Shanks also classified that 35-minute video, which showed the shooter killing two people, as objectionable.

The platform made changes to its service and live streaming capabilities in the wake of the Christchurch attack.

'Since this horrific attack, we've continued to make significant product, policy and operational changes to prevent our services from being used in future to cause harm or spread hate.

It implemented restrictions to Facebook live, permanently blocking those who violate its content rules, and was continuously working to make progress in line with commitments it made to the Christchurch Call to Action.

At the time, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Facebook's crackdown on live streaming was a good first step that showed the call was being actioned.

The Christchurch Call had progressed throughout the year, with 17 governments and various technology companies signing the New Zealand-led pledge. Facebook, Twitter and Google were among the companies involved, and the UK and France among the governments.