Stop reposting the Christchurch shooter’s live stream – Seriously, stop it
Monsters walk amongst us.
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Today is a sad day for humanity. On Friday, a group of gunmen walked into the Christchurch mosque in New Zealand and opened fire, killing 49 innocent people. The situation is still ongoing, and four suspects have been apprehended.
Reportedly, one of the gunmen live streamed the whole thing to Facebook and YouTube. Thankfully, the videos have been taken down, but sadly, videos of the heinous event are still being shared online by social media users and news outlets around the world.
Sure, the videos have been removed from Facebook and YouTube, but it doesn’t take a brain genius to find them. With a little search know-how and the right keywords, anyone with access to the internet can see these videos. KnowTechie was able to find a few videos of the incident on YouTube and Twitter. Seriously, it’s not hard; they’re out there.
As expected, because people are horrible, social media platforms are having a difficult time keeping up with the flow of videos being uploaded to their services. When one video gets taken down, another takes its place. It’s honestly quite disgusting and it needs to stop.
Police are asking people to stop sharing the footage, and they’re looking to get as much of it removed as possible
Police are aware there is extremely distressing footage relating to the incident in Christchurch circulating online. We would strongly urge that the link not be shared. We are working to have any footage removed.
— New Zealand Police (@nzpolice) March 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/RMac18/status/1106400370471784448
https://twitter.com/sheeraf/status/1106402124311613441
https://twitter.com/arielbogle/status/1106402168674746368
Google is working hard to keep these videos from being uploaded to YouTube. In a recent statement, the company said they’re cooperating with local authorities.
“Our hearts go out to the victims of this terrible tragedy. Shocking, violent and graphic content has no place on our platforms, and is removed as soon as we become aware of it. As with any major tragedy, we will work cooperatively with the authorities,” Google’s spokesperson said.
Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook are all doing their part, as well. Facebook issued a statement echoing Google’s announcement:
“Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and the community affected by this horrendous act. New Zealand Police alerted us to a video on Facebook shortly after the livestream commenced and we quickly removed both the shooter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and the video,” Facebook’s spokesperson said.
It’s good to see these social giants doing their part, but it’s obvious they can’t keep up with the heavy flow of videos being re-uploaded and shared throughout its networks. Honestly, the solution is simple. Have a soul, stop reposting and sharing these videos. It’s that simple. But here we are.
Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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