Facebook to crack down on hate speech and livestreaming after Christchurch attacks

Facebook has announced plans to restrict livestreaming and curb hate speech after the Christchurch mosque shootings. 

The last two weeks have seen fierce criticism of Facebook's response after the attack was livestreamed and widely shared on the platform. 

Businesses pulled their social media advertising and the Privacy Commissioner called Facebook's silence an "insult" to the nation's grief. 

On Thursday, Facebook announced it would ban white nationalist and separatist content. In an open letter posted on the Facebook NZ page on Saturday morning, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg set out further changes: "We have heard feedback that we must do more – and we agree," she said.  

Facebook planned to strengthen the rules around using Facebook Live and take "further steps to address hate" on its platforms, she said. 

The new rules could mean people who have violated community standards before are prevented from going live. 

People had "rightly questioned" how online platforms were used to circulate videos of the attack, she said, and Facebook was committed to reviewing what had happened. 

Facebook said it removed 1.5 million videos of the Christchurch mosque shootings in the first 24 hours after the attack.

The video spread mainly through people re-sharing and re-editing the video, Sandberg said, with more than 900 different versions identified. 

A senior executive at Facebook admitted its artificial intelligence systems failed to automatically detect the video - partly because attacks like this are so rare, and partly because it was similar to "innocuous content" such as video games. 

Sandberg said Facebook was investing in research to build better technology to identify these kinds of edited versions and prevent them being re-shared.

"People with bad intentions will always try to get around our security measures. That's why we must work to continually stay ahead."

She said Facebook had also changed its review process to improve response time to similar videos in the future.

Earlier this week, Facebook said it would block white nationalist and white separatist posts​, treating that content the same way it treats white supremacist content.

Sandberg reiterated this in her letter. Groups including the Lads Society, the United Patriots Front, the Antipodean Resistance and National Front New Zealand had been banned, and praise and support of these groups would also be removed when Facebook became aware of it, she said.  

She also said Facebook had been working closely with police and was ready to work with the Royal Commission of Inquiry, which has been set up to look into the country's security agencies and the circumstances leading up to the March 15 attacks. 

"We are also ready to work with the New Zealand Government on future regulatory models for the online industry in areas like content moderation, elections, privacy, and data portability," she said. 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has called for a co-ordinated global effort to tackle online hate speech. On Saturday a spokesperson for Ardern said that while the steps taken by Facebook were welcome, "it remains our preference that the response to this challenge be global in its nature and involve government and tech companies as these problems are not strictly related to one government or one tech company."

"We will continue to pursue resolution at that level," the spokesperson said. 

"Obviously we will need to wait and see exactly what changes do come about as a result of their looking into the live-streaming." 

Speaking in Christchurch on Thursday, Ardern applauded the move to ban white nationalists from the platform, but said there was more work to do.

"I'm pleased to see that they are including it and that they have taken that step, but I still think that there is a conversation to be had with the international community about whether or not enough is being done.

"There are lessons to be learned here in Christchurch and we don't want anyone to have to learn those lessons over again."