New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on 28 Mar 2019, Thursday that she welcomed Facebook Inc’s decision to ban praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism on its social media platforms.
“Arguably these categories should always fall within the community guidelines of hate speech, but nevertheless it’s positive the clarification has now been made in the wake of the attack in Christchurch,” she said at a press conference.
Jacinda Ardern said 59 countries will send diplomatic representatives to a national remembrance service on Friday.
Facebook’s ban was a shift in policy after criticism by civil rights groups that it was failing to confront extremism.
Facebook said in a blog post titled Standing Against Hate on 27 Mar 2019 Wednesday that their conversations with civil society and academics experts confirmed that white nationalism and white separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.
“Today we’re announcing a ban on praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism on Facebook and Instagram, which we’ll start enforcing next week. It’s clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services. ”
Facebook also will be making changes so that people who search for terms associated to white supremacy will be directed to Life After Hate, an organization founded by former violent extremists that provides crisis intervention, education, support groups and outreach.
Australian gunman Brenton Tarrant who was involved with in Christchurch New Zealand mosque attacks on Friday 15 Mar 2019 has been arrested and charged with murder.
Brenton Tarrant’s next court appearance which is scheduled for 05 April 2019.
