'We have much more to do' - NZ, France commemorate one year of the Christchurch Call

May 14, 2020

Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron chaired the Christchurch Call summit in Paris.

New Zealand and France are today celebrating the one year anniversary of the Christchurch Call, working together to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

In the wake of the March 15 terrorist attack, which left 51 people dead in Christchurch, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron came together to eradicate the online rhetoric behind the attack.

The Christchurch Call is supported by 48 countries, as well as the European Comission and eight tech companies - with New Zealand and France continuing to push for more countries' joining in 2020.

As a result, nations now have the means to coordinate across governments and tech companies to respond to attempts of using the internet as a terrorist weapon.

"Because of the Christchurch Call, we can coordinate internationally across governments and tech companies to stop terrorist and violent extremist attempts to weaponise the internet," Ms Ardern said.

The Prime Minister spoke to world leaders today about developments to counter terrorism globally.

"If an attack like we saw on March 15 last year happened again, we have an international network of governments and tech companies ready to mobilise and work against the forces that boosted the viral spread of content from Christchurch and caused such widespread harm.

"In the wake of the March 15 terrorist attack New Zealanders wanted to take action to stop what happened in our country occurring anywhere else. I am proud of the advances we have made in the last year.

"I have no doubt the work we have undertaken to date has already made it harder for those pushing terrorist and violent extremist content through the internet and social media in the way we saw in Christchurch."

Jacinda Ardern said repeats of live streaming after March 15 was why the Christchurch Call was put in place.

However, Ms Ardern also concedes that despite the success of the Christchurch Call's first year, there is still more that needs to be done.

"We are dealing with a global problem, which requires a global response," Ms Ardern continued. "We have achieved a lot but I am under no illusions we have much more to do.

"Malicious actors will always be searching for new ways to promote terrorism and violent extremism, and inflict harm, online.

"For as long they are, we will be working to counter them."


 

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